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SMITHSONIAN DEPOSIT. 



HARPER'S 



FAMILY LIBRARY. 

N°. Xl/ 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 

36g She Mia Iter Scott. 



,!FF-STREET 



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HARPER'S FAMILY LIBRARY. 



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CONTENTS. Xi 

of Major Weir— Sir John Clerk among the first who declined acting 
as Commissioner on the Trial of a Witch— Paisley and Pittenweem 
Witches — A Prosecution in Caithness prevented by the Interference 
of the King's Advocate in 171S — The last Sentence of Death for 
Witchcraft pronounced in Scotland in 1722— Remains of the Witch 
Superstition— Case of supposed Witchcraft, related from the Author's 
own Knowledge, which took Place so late as 1800. . . 241 

LETTER X. 

Other mystic Arts independent of Witchcraft— Astrology— Its Influence 
during the 16th and 17th Centuries — Base Ignorance of those who 
practised it— Lilly's History of his Life and Times— Astrologer's So- 
ciety — Dr. Lamb—Dr. Forman — Establishment of the Royal Society 
— Partridge — Connexion of Astrologers with elementary Spirits — Dr. 
Dun — Irish Superstition of the Banshie — Similar Superstition in the 
Highlands— Brownie — Ghosts— Belief of ancient Philosophers on that 
Subject — Inquiry into the Respect due to such Tales in modern Times 
— Evidence of a Ghost against a Murderer— Ghost of Sir George Vil- 
liers — Story of Earl St. Vincent — of a British General Officer — of an 
Apparition in France — of the second Lord Lyttelton — of Bill Jones — 
of Jarvis Matcham — Trial of two Highlanders for the Murder of Ser- 
geant Davis, discovered by a Ghost— Disturbances at Woodstock, 
Anno 1649 — Imposture called the Stockwell Ghost — Similar Case in 
Scotland— Ghost appearing to an Exciseman— Story of a disturbed 
House discovered by the Firmness of the Proprietor — Apparition at 
Plymouth— A Club of Philosophers— Ghost Adventure of a Farmer 
— Trick upon a veteran Soldier — Ghost Stories recommended by the 
Skill of the Authors who compose them — Mrs. Veal's Ghost — Dun- 
ton's Apparition Evidence — Effect of appropriate Scenery to encou- 
rage a Tendency to Superstition — Differs at distant Periods of Life — 
Night at Glammis Castle about 1791— Visit to Dunvegan in 1814. 290 



LETTERS 

ON 

DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 

To J. G. LOCKHART, Esa. 



LETTER L 



Origin of the general Opinions respecting Demonology among Mankind 
— The Belief in the Immortality of the Soul is the main Inducement 
to credit its occasional Reappearance— The philosophical Objections 
to the Apparition of an abstract Spirit little understood by the Vulgar 
and Ignorant— The Situationsof excited Passion incident to Humanity, 
which teach Men to wish or apprehend supernatural Apparitions — 
They are often presented by the sleeping Sense— Story of Somnam- 
bulism—The Influence of Credulity contagious, so that Individuals 
will trust the Evidence of others in despite of their own Senses- 
Examples from the Historia Verdadera of Bemal Dias del Castillo, 
and from the Works of Patrick Walker— The apparent Evidence of 
Intercourse with the supernatural World is sometimes owing to a 
depraved State of the bodily Organs— Difference between this Disorder 
and Insanity, in which the Organs retain their Tone, though that of 
the Mind is lost— Rebellion of the Senses of a Lunatic against the 
Current of his Reveries — Narratives of a contrary Nature^in which 
the Evidence of the Eyes overbore the Conviction of the Under- 
standing — Example of a London Man of Pleasure— Of Nicolai, the 
German Bookseller and Philosopher— Of a Patient of Dr. Gregory— 
Of an eminent Scottish Lawyer deceased— Of this same fallacious 
Disorder are other Instances, which have but sudden and momentary 
Endurance— Apparition of Maupertuis— Of a late illustrious modern 
oet — The Cases quoted chiefly relating to false Impressions on the 
isual Nerve, those upon the Ear next considered— Delusions of the 
ouch chiefly experienced in Sleep — Delusions of the Taste — and of 
s Smelling — Sum of the Argument. 

fou have asked of me, my dear friend, that I should 
ist the Family Library, with the history of a dark 
ipter in human nature, which the increasing civil- 
tion of all well-instructed countries has now 
lost blotted out, though the subject attracted no 
B 



14 LETTERS ON 

ordinary degree of consideration in the older times 
of their history. 

Among much reading of my early days, it is no 
doubt true that I travelled a good deal in the twilight 
regions of superstitious disquisitions. Many hours 
have I lost, — " I would their debt were less !" — in 
examining old, as well as more recent narratives of 
this character, and even in looking into some of the 
criminal trials so frequent in early days, upon a sub- 
ject which our fathers considered as matter of the 
last importance. And, of late years, the very curious 
extracts published by Mr. Pitcairn, from the criminal 
Records of Scotland, are, besides their historical 
value, of a nature so much calculated to illustrate 
the credulity of our ancestors on such subjects, that, 
by perusing them, I have been induced more recently 
to recall what I had read and thought upon the sub- 
ject at a former period. 

As, however, my information is only miscellaneous, 
and I make no pretensions, either to combat the sys- 
tems of those by whom I am anticipated in consider- 
ation of the subject, or to erect any new one of my 
own, my purpose is, after a general account of De- 
monology and Witchcraft, to confine myself to nar- 
ratives of remarkable cases, and to the observations 
which naturally and easily arise out of them ; — in the 
confidence that such a plan is, at the present time of 
day, more likely to suit the pages of a popidar mis- 
cellany, than an attempt to reduce the contents of 
many hundred tomes, from the largest to the smallest 
size," into an abridgment, which, however com- 
pressed, must remain greatly too large for the reader's 
powers of patience. 

A few general remarks on the nature of Demono- 
logy, and the original cause of the almost universal 
belief in communication between mortals and beings 
of a power superior to themselves, and of a nature 
not to be comprehended by human organs, are a 
necessary introduction to the subject. 



\ 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 15 

The general, or, it may be termed, the universal 
belief of the inhabitants of the earth, in the existence 
of spirits separated from the encumbrance and inca- 
pacities of the body, is grounded on the consciousness 
of the divinity that speaks in our bosoms, and demon- 
strates to all men, except the few who are hardened 
to the celestial voice, that there is within us a por- 
tion of the divine substance, which is not subject to 
the law of death and dissolution, but which, when 
the body is no longer fit for its abode, shall seek its 
own place, as a sentinel dismissed from his post. 
Unaided by revelation, it cannot be hoped that 
mere earthly reason should be able to form any 
rational or precise conjecture concerning the desti- 
nation of the soul when parted from the body; 
but the conviction that such an indestructible es- 
sence exists, the belief expressed by the poet in a 
different sense, Non omnis moriar, must infer the ex- 
istence of many millions of spirits, who have not 
been annihilated, though they have become invisible 
to mortals who still see, hear, and perceive only by 
means of the imperfect organs of humanity. Pro- 
bability may lead some of the most reflecting to an- 
ticipate a state of future rewards and punishments ; 
as those experienced in the education of the deaf and 
dumb find that their pupils, even while cut off from 
all instruction by ordinary means, have been able to 
form, out of their own unassisted conjectures, some 
ideas of the existence of a Deity, and of the distinc- 
tion between the soul and body — a circumstance 
which proves how naturally these truths arise in the 
human mind. The principle that they dc so arise, 
being taught or communicated, leads to farther con- 
clusions. 

These spirits, in a state of separate existence, 
being admitted to exist, are not, it may be supposed, 
indifferent to the affairs of mortality, perhaps not in- 
capable of influencing them. It is true, that, in a 
more advanced state of society, the philosopher may 



16 LETTERS OX 

challenge the possibility of a separate appearance of a 
disembodied spirit, unless in the case of a direct 
miracle, to which, being a suspension of the laws of 
nature, directly wrought by the Maker of these laws, 
for some express purpose, no bound or restraint can 
possibly be assigned. But, under this necessary limit- 
ation and exception, philosophers might plausibly 
argue, that, when the soul is divorced from the body* 
it loses all those qualities which made it, when 
clothed with a mortal shape, obvious to the organs 
of its fellow-men. The abstract idea of a spirit cer- 
tainly implies, that it has neither substance, form, 
shape, voice, or any thing which can render its pre- 
sence, visible or sensible to human faculties. But 
these skeptic doubts of philosophers on the possibility 
of the appearance of such sepaiated spirits, do not 
arise till a certain degree of information has dawned 
upon a country, and even then only reach a very 
small proportion of reflecting and better informed 
members of society. To the multitude, the indubi- 
table fact, that so many millions of spirits exist 
around and even among us, seems sufficient to sup- 
port the belief that they are, in certain instances at 
least, by some means or other, able to communicate 
with the world of humanity. The more numerous 
part of mankind cannot form in their mind the idea 
of the spirit of the deceased existing, without pos- 
sessing or having the power to assume the appear- 
ance which their acquaintance bore during his life, 
and do not push their researches beyond this point. 

Enthusiastic feelings of an impressive and solemn 
nature occur both in private and public life, which 
seem to add ocular testimony to an intercourse be- 
tween earth and the world beyond it. For example, 
the son who has been lately deprived of his father 
feels a sudden crisis approach, in which he is anxious 
to have recourse to his sagacious advice — or a be- 
reaved husband earnestly desires again to behold the 
form of which the grave has deprived him for ever 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 17 

— or, to use a darker yet very common instance, the 
wretched man who has dipped his hand in his fellow- 
creature's blood is haunted by the apprehension that 
the phantom of the slain stands by the bedside of 
his murderer. In all or any of these cases, who 
shall doubt that imagination, favoured by circum- 
stances, has power to summon up to the organ of sight 
spectres which only exist in the mind of those by 
whom their apparition seems to be witnessed ? 

If we add, that such a vision may take place in 
the course of one of those lively dreams, in which 
the patient, except in respect to the single subject 
of one strong impression, is, or seems, sensible of 
the real particulars of the scene around him, a state 
of slumber which often occurs — if he is so far con- 
scious, for example, as to know that he is lying on his 
wnbed, and surrounded by his own familiar furniture, 
at the time when the supposed apparition is mani- 
fested — it becomes almost in vain to argue with the 
visionary against the reality of his dream, since the 
spectre, though itself purely fanciful, is inserted 
amid so many circumstances which he feels must be 
true beyond the reach of doubt or question. That 
which is undeniably certain becomes in a manner a 
warrant for the reality of the appearance to which 
doubt would have been otherwise attached. And if 
any event, such as the death of the person dreamed of, 
chances to take place, so as to correspond with the 
nature and the time of the apparition, the coincidence, 
though one which must be frequent, since our dreams 
usually refer to the accomplishment of that which 
haunts our minds when awake, and often presage 
the most probable events, seems perfect, and the 
chain of circumstances touching the evidence may 
not unreasonably be considered as complete. Such a 
concatenation, we repeat, must frequently take place, 
when it is considered of what stuff dreams are made 
— how naturally they turn upon those who occupy our 
mind while awake, and, when a soldier is exposed to 
B2 



18 LETTERS ON 

death in battle, when a sailor is incurring the dan- 
gers of the sea, when a beloved wife or relative is 
attacked by disease, how readily our sleeping ima- 
gination rushes to the very point of alarm, which 
when waking it had shuddered to anticipate. The 
number of instances in which such lively dreams 
have been quoted, and both asserted and received as 
spiritual communications, is very great at all periods ; 
in ignorant times, where the natural cause of dream- 
ing is misapprehended, and confused with an idea of 
mysticism, it is much greater. Yet perhaps, consi- 
dering the many thousands of dreams which must, 
night after night, pass through the imagination of 
individuals, the number of coincidences between the 
vision and real event, are fewer and less remarkable 
than a fair calculation of chances would warrant us 
to expect. But in countries where such presaging 
dreams are subjects of attention, the number of those 
which seem to be coupled with the corresponding 
issue is large enough to spread a very general belief 
of a positive communication between the living and 
the dead. 

Somnambulism and other nocturnal deceptions 
frequently lend their aid to the formation of such 
phantasmata as are formed in this middle state be- 
tween sleeping and waking. A most respectable 
person, whose active life had been spent as master 
and part owner of a large merchant vessel in the 
Lisbon trade, gave the writer an account of such an 
instance which came under his observation. He was 
lying in the Tagus, when he was put to great anxiety 
and alarm, by the following incident and its conse- 
quences. One of his crew was murdered by a Por- 
tuguese assassin, and a report arose that the ghost 
of the slain man haunted the vessel. Sailors are 
generally superstitious, and those of my friend's ves- 
sel became unwilling to remain on board the ship ; 
and it was probable they might desert rather than 
return to England with the ghost for a passenger. 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 19 

To prevent so great a calamity, the Captain deter- 
mined to examine the story to the bottom. He soon 
found, that though all pretended to have seen lights, 
and heard noises, and so forth, the weight of the evi- 
dence lay upon the statement of one of his own 
mates, an Irishman and a Catholic, which might in- 
crease his tendency to superstition, but in other re- 
spects a veracious, honest, and sensible person, whom 

Captain had no reason to suspect would wilfully 

deceive him. He affirmed to Captain S , with 

the deepest obtestations, that the spectre of the mur- 
dered man appeared to him almost nightly, took him 
from his place in the vessel, and, according to his 
own expression, worried his life out. He made these 
communications with a degree of horror, which inti- 
mated the reality of Ms distress and apprehensions. 
The Captain, without any argument at the time, pri- 
vately resolved to watch the motions of the ghost- 
seer in the night ; whether alone, or with a witness, 
I have forgotten. As the ship bell struck twelve, the 
sleeper started up, with a ghastly and disturbed 
countenance, and lighting a candle, proceeded to the 
galley or cook-room of the vessel. He sat down 
with his eyes open, staring before him as on some 
terrible object which he beheld with horror, yet from 
which he could not withhold his eyes. After a short 
space he arose, took up a tin can or decanter, filled 
it with water, muttering to himself all the while — 
mixed salt in the water, and sprinkled it about the 
galley. Finally, he signed deeply, like one relieved 
from a heavy burden, and, returning to his hammock, 
slept soundly. In the next morning, the haunted 
man told the usual precise story of his apparition, 
with the additional circumstances, that the ghost had 
led him to the galley, but that he had fortunately, 
he knew not how, obtained possession of some holy 
w r ater, and succeeded in getting rid of his unwelcome 
visiter. The visionary was then informed of the 
real transactions of the night, with so many particu- 



20 LETTERS ON 

lars as to satisfy him he had been the dupe of his 
imagination ; he acquiesced in his commander's rea- 
soning, and the dream, as often happens in these 
cases, returned no more after its imposture had been 
detected. In this case, we find the excited imagina- 
tion acting upon the half- waking senses, which were 
intelligent enough for the purpose of making him 
sensible where he was, but not sufficiently so as to 
judge truly of the objects before him. 

But it is not private life alone, or that tenor of 
thought which has been depressed into melancholy 
by gloomy anticipations respecting the future, which 
disposes the mind to midday fantasies, or to nightly 
apparitions — a state of eager anxiety, or excited 
exertion, is equally favourable to the indulgence of 
such supernatural communications. The anticipation 
of a dubious battle, with all the doubt and uncer- 
tainty of its event, and the conviction that it must 
involve his own fate, and that of his country, was 
powerful enough to conjure up to the anxious eye 
of Brutus the spectre of his murdered friend Caesar, 
respecting whose death he perhaps thought himself 
less justified than at the Ides of March, since instead 
of having achieved the freedom of Rome, the event 
had only been the renewal of civil wars, and the 
issue might appear most likely to conclude in the 
total subjection of liberty. It is not miraculous, that 
the masculine spirit of Marcus Brutus, surrounded 
by darkness and solitude, distracted probably by 
recollection of the kindness and favour of the 
great individual whom he had put to death to avenge 
the wrongs of his country, though by the slaughter 
of his own friend, should at length place before his 
eyes in person the appearance which termed itself 
his evil Genius, and promised again to meet him at 
Philippi. Brutus's own intentions, and his knowledge 
of the military art, had probably long since assured 
him that the decision of the civil war must take place 
at or near that place ; and, allowing that his own 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 21 

imagination supplied that part of his dialogue with 
the spectre, there is nothing else which might not be 
fashioned in a vivid dream or a waking revery, 
approaching, in absording and engrossing character, 
the usual matter of which dreams consist. That 
Brutus, well acquainted with the opinions of the 
Platonists, should be disposed to receive without 
doubt the idea that he had seen a real apparition, and 
was not likely to scrutinize very minutely the sup- 
posed vision, may be naturally conceived ; and it is 
also natural to think, that although no one saw the 
figure but himself, his contemporaries were little 
disposed to examine the testimony of a man so 
eminent, by the strict rules of cross-examination and 
conflicting evidence, which they might have thought 
applicable to another person, and a less dignified 
occasion. 

Even in the field of death, and amid the mortal 
tug of combat itself, strong belief has wrought the 
same wonder, which we have hitherto mentioned as 
occurring in solitude and amid darkness ; and those 
who were themselves on the verge of the world of 
spirits, or employed in despatching others to these 
gloomy regions, conceived they beheld the appari- 
tions of those beings whom their national mythology 
associated with such scenes. In such moments of 
undecided battle, amid the violence, hurry, and con- 
fusion of ideas incident to the situation, the ancients 
supposed that they saw their deities Castor and 
Pollux fighting in the van for their encouragement ; 
the heathen Scandinavian beheld the Choosers of the 
slain ; and the Catholics were no less easily led to 
recognise the warlike Saint George or Saint James 
in the very front of the strife, showing them the 
way to conquest. Such apparitions being generally 
visible to a multitude, have in all times been supported 
by the greatest strength of testimony. When the 
common feeling of danger, and the animating burst 
of enthusiasm, act on the feelings of many men at 



22 LETTERS ON 

once, their minds hold a natural correspondence with 
each other, as it is said is the case with stringed 
instruments tuned to the same pitch, of which, when 
one is pla}^ed, the chords of the others are supposed 
to vibrate in unison with the tones produced. If an 
artful or enthusiastic individual exclaims, in the heat 
of action, that he perceives an apparition of the 
romantic kind which has been intimated, his com- 
panions catch at the idea with emulation, and most 
are willing to sacrifice the conviction of their own 
senses, rather than allow that they did not witness 
the same favourable emblem, from which all draw 
confidence and hope. One warrior catches the idea 
from another ; all are alike eager to acknowledge the 
present miracle, and the battle is won before the mis- 
take is discovered. In such cases, the number of 
persons present, which would otherwise lead to 
detection of the fallacy, becomes the means of 
strengthening it. 

Of this disposition to see as much of the super- 
natural as is seen by others aromid, or, in other 
words, to trust to the eyes of others rather than to 
our own, we may take the liberty to quote two re- 
markable instances. 

The first is from the Historia Verdadera of Don 
Bernal Dias del Castillo, one of the companions of 
the celebrated Cortez, in his Mexican conquest. 
After having given an account of a great victory 
over extreme odds, he mentions the report inserted 
in the contemporary Chronicle of Gomara, that Saint 
Iago had appeared on a white horse in van of the 
combat, and led on his beloved Spaniards to victory. 
It is very curious to observe the Castilian cavalier's 
internal conviction, that the rumour arose out of a 
mistake, the cause of which he explains from his 
own observation ; while at the same time he does 
not venture to disown the miracle. The honest 
Conquestador owns, that he himself did not see this 
animating vision ; nay, that he beheld an individual 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 23 

cavalier, named Francisco <le Morla, mounted on a 
chestnut horse, and fighting strenuously, in the very- 
place where Saint James is said to have appeared. 
But instead of proceeding to draw the necessary in- 
ference, the devout Conquestador exclaims, — " Sinner 
that I am, what am I that I should have beheld the 
blessed apostle !" 

The other instance of the infectious character of 
superstition occurs in a Scottish book, and there 
can be little doubt that it refers, in its first origin, to 
some uncommon appearance of the aurora borealis, 
or the northern lights, which do not appear to have 
been seen in Scotland so frequently as to be ac- 
counted a common and familiar atmospherical phe- 
nomenon, until the beginning of the eighteenth 
century. The passage is striking and curious, for 
the narrator, Peter Walker, though an enthusiast, 
was a man of credit, and does not even affect to 
have seen the wonders, the reality of which he un- 
scrupulously adopts on the testimony of others, to 
whose eyes he trusted rather than to his own. The 
conversion of the skeptical gentleman of whom he 
speaks, is highly illustrative of popular credulity, 
carried away into enthusiasm, or into imposture, by 
the evidence of those around, and at once shows 
the imperfection of such a general testimony, and 
the ease with which it is procured, since the general 
excitement of the moment impels even the more 
cold-blooded and judicious persons present to catch 
up the ideas, and echo the exclamations, of the 
majority, who, from the first, had considered the 
heavenly phenomenon as a supernatural weapon- 
schaw, held for the purpose of a sign and warning 
of civil wars to come. 

"In the year 1686, in the months of June and 

July," says the honest chronicler, " many yet alive 

can witness that about the Crossford Boat, two 

miles beneath Lanark, especially at the Mains, on 

aier of Clyde, many people gathered together 



24 LETTERS ON 

for several afternoons, where there were showers 
of bonnets, hats, guns, and swords, which covered 
the trees and the ground ; companies of men in 
arms marching in order upon the water-side ; com- 
panies meeting companies, going all through other, 
and then all falling to the ground and disappearing ; 
other companies immediately appeared, marching the 
same way. I went there three afternoons together, 
and as I observed there were two-thirds of the 
people that were together saw, and a third that saw 
not, and though I could see nothing, there was such 
a fright and trembling on those that did see, that was 
discernible to all from those that saw not. There 
was a gentleman standing next to me, who spoke 
as too many gentlemen and others speak, who said, 
' A pack of damned witches and warlocks that have 
the second sight ! the devil ha't do I see ;' and imme- 
diately there was a discernible change in his coun- 
tenance. With as much fear and trembling as any 
woman I saw there, he called out, 'All you that do 
not see, say nothing ; for I persuade you it is matter 
of fact, and discernible to all that are not stone-blind.' 
And those who.did see told what works (i. e. locks) 
the guns had, and their length and wideness, and 
what handles the swords had, whether small or 
three-barred, or Highland guards, and the closing- 
knots of the bonnets, black or blue ; and those who 
did see them there, whenever they went abroad, 
saw a bonnet and a sword drop in the way."* 

This singular phenomenon, in which a multitude 
believed, although only two-thirds of them saw what 
must, if real, have been equally obvious to all, may 
be compared with the exploit of a humorist, who 
planted himself in an attitude of astonishment with 
his eyes riveted on the well-known bronze lion that 

* Walker's Lives, Edinburgh, 1827, vol. i. p. xxxvi. It is evident that 
honest Peter believed in the apparition of this martial sear, on the prin- 
ciple of Partridge's terror for the ghost of Hamlet— not, that he was 
afraid himselfj but because Garrick showed such evident marks of terror. 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 25 

graces the front of Northumberland-house in the 
Strand, and having attracted the attention of those 
who looked at him by muttering, " By Heaven, it 
wags ! — it wags again !" contrived in a few minutes 
to blockade the whole street with an immense crowd, 
some conceiving that they had absolutely seen the 
lion of Percy wag his tail, others expecting to wit- 
ness the same phenomenon. 

On such occasions as we have hitherto mentioned, 
we have supposed that the ghost-seer has been in 
full possession of his ordinary powers of perception, 
unless in the case of dreamers, in whom they may 
have been obscured by temporaiy slumber, and the 
possibility of correcting vagaries of the imagination 
rendered more difficult by want of the ordinary 
appeal to the evidence of the bodily senses. In 
other respects, their blood beat temperately, they 
possessed the ordinary capacity of ascertaining the 
truth, or discerning the falsehood, of external ap- 
pearances, by an appeal to the organ of sight. Un- 
fortunately, however, as is now universally known 
and admitted, there certainly exists more than one 
disorder known to professional men, of which one 
important symptom is a disposition to see appa- 
ritions. 

This frightful disorder is not properly insanity, 
although it is somewhat allied to that most horri- 
ble of maladies, and may, in many constitutions, 
be the means of bringing it on, and although such 
hallucinations are proper to both. The difference 
I conceive to be, that, in cases of insanity, the 
mind of the patient is principally affected, while 
the senses, or organic system, offer in vain to the 
lunatic their decided testimony against the fantasy 
of a deranged imagination. Perhaps the nature 
of this collision — between a disturbed imagination 
and organs of sense possessed of their usual accu- 
racy — cannot be better described than in the em- 
barrassment expressed by an insane patient con- 
C 



26 LETTERS ON 

fined in the Infirmary of Edinburgh. The poor 
man's malady had taken a gay turn. The house, 
in his idea, was his own, and he contrived to ac- 
count for all that seemed inconsistent with his 
imaginary right of property; — there were many 
patients in it, but that was owing to the benevolence 
of his nature, which made him love to see the relief 
of distress. He went little, or rather never abroad — 
but then his habits were of a domestic and rather 
sedentary character. He did not see much company 
— but he daily received visits from the first characters 
in the renowned medical school of this city, and he 
could not therefore be much in want of society. 
With so many supposed comforts around him — with 
so many visions of wealth and splendour, one tiling 
alone disturbed the peace of the poor optimist, and 
would indeed have confounded most bons vivans, — 
" He was curious," he said, " in his table, choice in 
his selection of cooks, had every day a dinner of three 
regular courses and a dessert ; and yet, somehow or 
other, every thing he eat tasted of porridge ." This 
dilemma could be no great wonder to the friend to 
whom the poor patient communicated it, who knew 
the lunatic eat nothing but this simple aliment at any 
of his meals. The case was obvious ; the disease 
lay in the extreme vivacity of the patient's imagina- 
tion, deluded in other instances, yet not absolutely 
powerful enough to contend with the honest evidence 
of his stomach and palate, which, like Lord Peter's 
brethren in the Tale of a Tub, were indignant at the 
attempt to impose boiled oatmeal upon them, instead 
of such a banquet as Ude would have displayed when 
peers were to partake of it. Here, therefore, is one 
instance of actual insanity, in which the sense of 
taste controlled and attempted to restrain the ideal 
hypothesis adopted by a deranged imagination. But 
the disorder to which I previously alluded is entirely 
of a bodily character, and consists principally in a 
disease of the visual organs, which present to the 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 27 

patient a set of spectres or appearances, which have 
no actual existence. It is a disease of the same na- 
ture, which renders many men incapable of distin- 
guishing colours ; only the patients go a step farther, 
and pervert the external form of objects. In their 
case, therefore, contrary to that of the maniac, it is 
not the mind, or rather the imagination, which imposes 
upon and overpowers the evidence of the senses, but 
the sense of seeing (or hearing) which betrays its 
duty, and conveys false ideas to a sane intellect. 

More than one learned physician, who have given 
their attestations to the existence of this most dis- 
tressing complaint, have agreed that it actually oc- 
curs, and is occasioned by different causes. The 
most frequent source of the malady is in the dissi- 
pated and intemperate habits of those who, by a 
continued series of intoxication, become subject to 
what is popularly called the Blue Devils, instances 
of which mental disorder may be known to most who 
have lived for any period of their lives in society 
where hard-drinking was a common vice. The 
joyous visions suggested by intoxication when the 
habit is first acquired, in time disappear, and are sup- 
plied by frightful impressions and scenes, which 
destroy the tranquillity of the unhappy debauchee. 
Apparitions of the most unpleasant appearance are 
his companions in solitude, and intrude even upon 
his hours of society ; and when by an alteration of 
habits, the mind is cleared of these frightful ideas, it 
requires but the slightest renewal of the association 
to bring back the full tide of misery upon the re- 
pentant libertine. 

Of this the following instance was told to the au- 
thor by a gentleman connected with the sufferer. A 
young man of fortune, who had led what is called so 
gay a life as considerably to injure both his health 
and fortune, was at length obliged to consult the 
physician upon the means of restoring at least the 
former. One of his principal complaints was tt 



28 LETTERS ON 

frequent presence of a set of apparitions, resembling 
a band of figures dressed in green, who performed 
in his drawing-room a singular dance, to winch he 
was compelled to bear witness, though he knew, to 
his great annoyance, that the whole corps de ballet 
existed only in his own imagination. His physician 
immediately informed him that he had lived upon 
town too long and too fast not to require an exchange 
to a more healthy and natural course of life. He 
therefore prescribed a gentle course of medicine, but 
earnestly recommended to his patient to retire to his 
own house in the country, observe a temperate diet 
and early hours, practising regular exercise, on the 
same principle avoiding fatigue, and assured him that 
by doing so he might bid adieu to black spirits and 
white, blue, green, and gray, with all their trumpery. 
The patient observed the advice, and prospered. His 
physician, after the interval of a month, received a 
grateful letter from him, acknowledging the success 
of his regimen. The green goblins had disappeared, 
and with them the unpleasant train of emotions to 
which their visits had given rise, and the patient had 
ordered his town-house to be disfurnished and sold, 
while the furniture was to be sent down to his resi- 
dence in the country, where he was determined in 
future to spend his life, without exposing himself to 
the temptations of town. One would have supposed 
this a well-devised scheme for health. But, alas ! 
no sooner had the furniture of the London drawing- 
room been placed in order in the gallery of the old 
manor-house, than the former delusion returned in full 
force ! the green figurantes, whom the patient's de- 
praved imagination had so long associated with these 
moveables, came capering and frisking to accompany 
them, exclaiming with great glee, as if the sufferer 
should have been rejoiced to see them, " Here we all 
are — here we all are !" The visionary, if I recollect 
right, was so much shocked at their appearance, that 
he retired abroad, in despair that any part of Britain 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 29 

could shelter him from the daily persecution of this 
domestic ballet. 

There is reason to believe that such cases are nu- 
merous, and that they may perhaps arise, not only 
from the debility of stomach brought on by excess 
in wine or spirits, which derangement often sensibly 
affects the eyes and sense of sight, but also because 
the mind becomes habitually predominated over by 
a train of fantastic visions, the consequence of fre- 
quent intoxication; and is thus, like a dislocated 
joint, apt again to go wrong, even when a different 
cause occasions the derangement. 

It is easy to be supposed that habitual excitement 
by means of any other intoxicating drug, as opium, 
or its various substitutes, must expose those who 
practise the dangerous custom to the same incon- 
venience. Very frequent use of the nitrous oxide, 
which affects the senses so strongly, and produces a 
short but singular state of ecstasy, would probably be 
found to occasion this species of disorder. But there 
are many other causes which medical men find 
attended with the same symptom, of imbodying before 
the eyes of a patient imaginary illusions which are 
visible to no one else. This persecution of spectral 
deceptions is also found to exist when no excesses of 
the patient can be alleged as the cause, owing, doubt- 
less, to a deranged state of the blood, or nervous 
system. 

The learned and acute Dr. Ferriar, of Manchester, 
was the first who brought before the English public 
the leading case, as it may be called, in this depart- 
ment, namely, that of Mons. Nicolai, the celebrated 
bookseller of Berlin. This gentleman was not a man 
merely of books, but of letters, and had the moral 
courage to lay before the Philosophical Society of 
Berlin an account of his own sufferings, from having 
been, by disease, subjected to a series of spectral 
illusions. The leading circumstances of this case 
may be stated veiy shortly, as it has been repeatedly 
C2 






30 LETTERS ON 

before the public, and is insisted on by Dr. Ferriar, Dr. 
Hibbert, and others who have assumed Demonology 
as a subject. Nicolai traces his illness remotely to 
a series of disagreeable incidents which had happened 
to him in the beginning of the year 1791. The 
depression of spirit which was occasioned by these 
unpleasant occurrences was aided by the consequences 
of neglecting a course of periodical bleeding which 
he had been accustomed to observe. This state of 
health brought on the disposition to see phantasmata, 
who visited, or it may be more properly said fre- 
quented, the apartments of the learned bookseller, pre- 
senting crowds of persons who moved and acted 
before him, nay, even spoke to and addressed him. 
These phantoms afforded nothing unpleasant to the 
imagination of the visionary either in sight or expres- 
sion, and the patient was possessed of too much 
firmness to be otherwise affected by their presence 
than with a species of curiosity, as he remained con- 
vinced, from the beginning to the end of the disorder, 
that these singular effects were merely symptoms of 
the state of his health, and did not in any other respect 
regard them as a subject of apprehension. After a 
certain time, and some use of medicine, the phantoms 
became less distinct in their outline, less vivid in 
their colouring, faded, as it were, on the eye of the 
patient, and at length totally disappeared. 

The case of Nicolai has unquestionably been that 
of many whose love of science has not been able to 
overcome their natural reluctance to communicate to 
the public the particulars attending the visitation of 
a disease so peculiar. That such illnesses have been 
experienced, and have ended fatally, there can be no 
doubt ; though it is by no means to be inferred, that 
the symptom of importance to our present discussion 
has, on all occasions, been produced from the same 
identical cause. 

Dr. Hibbert, who has most ingeniously, as well as 
philosophically, handled this subject, has treated it 



DEMOXOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 31 

also in a medical point of view, with science to which 
we make no pretence, and a precision of detail to 
which our superficial investigation affords us no room 
for extending ourselves. 

The visitation of spectral phenomena is described 
by this learned gentleman as incidental to sundry- 
complaints ; and he mentions, in particular, that the 
symptom occurs not only in plethora, as in the case 
of the learned Prussian we have just mentioned, but 
is a frequent hectic sympton — often an associate of 
febrile and inflammatory disorders — frequently accom- 
panying inflammation of the brain — a concomitant also 
of highly excited nervous irritability — equally con- 
nected with hypochondria — and finally, united in some 
cases with gout, and in others with the effects of 
excitation produced by several gases. In all these 
cases there seems to be a morbid degree of sensibility, 
with which this symptom is ready to ally itself, and 
which though inaccurate as a medical definition, may 
be held sufficiently descriptive of one character of the 
various kinds of disorder with which this painful 
symptom maybe found allied. 

A very singular and interesting illustration of such 
combinations as Dr. Hibbert has recorded of the 
spectral illusion with an actual disorder, and that of 
a dangerous kind, was frequently related in society 
by the late learned and accomplished Dr. Gregory, 
of Edinburgh, and sometimes, I believe, quoted by 
him in his lectures. The narrative, to the author's 
best recollection, was as follows : — A patient of Dr. 
Gregory, a person, it is understood, of some rank, 
having requested the Doctor's advice, made the fol- 
lowing extraordinary statement of his complaint. 
" I am in the habit," he said, " of dining at five, and 
exactly as the hour of six arrives, I am subjected 
to the following painful visitation. The door of the 
room, even when I have been weak enough to bolt 
it, which I have sometimes done, flies wide open ; an 
old hag, like one of those who haunted the heath of 



32 LETTERS ON 

Forres, enters with a frowning and incensed counte- 
nance, comes straight up to me with every demon- 
stration of spite and indignation which could cha- 
racterize her whoi haunted the merchant Abudah, in 
the Oriental tale ; she rushes upon me ; says some- 
thing, but so hastily that I cannot discover the pur- 
port; and then strikes me a severe blow with her 
staff. I fall from my chair in a swoon, which is of 
longer or shorter endurance. To the recurrence of 
this apparition I am daily subjected. And such is 
my new and singular complaint." The Doctor 
immediately asked, whether his patient had invited 
any one to sit with him when he expected such a 
visitation 1 He was answered in the negative. The 
nature of the complaint, he said, was so singular, it 
was so likely to be imputed to fancy, or even to 
mental derangement, that he shrunk from communi- 
cating the circumstance to any one. " Then," said 
the Doctor, " with your permission, I will dine with 
you to-day, tete-a-tete, and we will see if your malig- 
nant old woman will venture to join our company." 
The patient accepted the proposal with hope and 
gratitude, for he had expected ridicule rather than 
sympathy. They met at dinner, and Doctor Gregoiy, 
who suspected some nervous disorder, exerted his 
powers of conversation, well known to be of the 
most varied and brilliant character, to keep the 
attention of his host engaged, and prevent him from 
thinking on the approach of the fated hour, to which 
he was accustomed to look forward with so much 
terror. He succeeded in his purpose better than he 
had hoped. The hour of six came almost unnoticed, 
and it was hoped, might pass away without any evil 
consequence ; but it was scarce a moment struck when 
the owner of the house exclaimed, in an alarmed 
voice — " The hag comes again !" and dropped back 
in his chair in a swoon, in tfie way he had himself 
described. The physician caused him to be let blood, 
and satisfied himself that the periodical shocks of 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 33 

which his patient complained, arose from a tendency 
to apoplexy. 

The phantom with the crutch was only a species 
of machinery, such as that with which fancy is found 
to supply the disorder called Ephialtes, or nightmare, 
or indeed any other external impression upon our 
organs in sleep, which the patient's morbid imagina- 
tion may introduce into the dream preceding the 
swoon. In the nightmare an oppression and suffo- 
cation is felt, and our fancy instantly conjures up a 
spectre to lie on our bosom. In like manner, it may 
be remarked, that any sudden noise which the slum- 
berer hears, without being actually awakened by it 
— any casual touch of his person occurring in the 
same manner — becomes instantly adopted in his 
dream, and accommodated to the tenor of the cm- 
rent train of thought, whatever that may happen to 
be ; and nothing is more remarkable than the rapidity 
with which imagination supplies a complete expla- 
nation of the interruption, according to the previous 
train of ideas expressed in the dream, even when 
scarce a moment of time is allowed for that purpose. 
In dreaming, for example, of a duel, the external 
sound becomes, in the twinkling of an eye, the dis- 
charge of the combatants' pistols ; — is an orator ha- 
ranguing in his sleep, the sound becomes the ap- 
plause of his supposed audience; — is the dreamer 
wandering among supposed ruins, the noise is that 
of the fall of some part of the mass. In short an 
explanatory system is adopted during sleep with 
such extreme rapidity, that supposing the intruding 
alarm to have been the first call of some person to 
awaken the slumberer, the explanation, though requir- 
ing some process of argument or deduction, is usually 
formed and perfect before the second effort of the 
speaker has restored the dreamer to the waking world 
and its realities. So rapid and intuitive is the succes- 
sion of ideas in sleep, as to remind us of the vision of the 
prophet Mahommed, in which he saw the whole won- 



34 LETTERS ON 

ders of heaven and hell, though the jar of water which 
fell when his ecstasy commenced had not spilled its 
contents when he returned to ordinary existence. 

A second and equally remarkable instance was 
communicated to the author by the medical man un- 
der whose observation it fell, but who was, of course, 
desirous to keep private the name of the hero of so 
singular a history. Of the friend by whom the facts 
were attested, I can only say, that if* I found myself 
at liberty to name him, the rank which he holds in 
his profession, as well as his attainments in science 
and philosophy, form an undisputed claim to the 
most implicit credit. 

It was the fortune of this gentleman to be called 
in to attend the illness of a person now long deceased, 
who in his lifetime stood, as I understand, high 
in a particular department of the law, which often 
placed the property of others at his discretion and 
control, and whose conduct, therefore, being open to 
public observation, he had for many years borne the 
character of a man of unusual steadiness, good sense, 
and integrity. He was, at the time of my friend's 
visits, confined principally to his sick-room, some- 
times to bed, yet occasionally attending to business, 
and exerting his mind, apparently with all its usual 
strength and energy, to the conduct of important 
affairs intrusted to him'; nor did there, to a superficial 
observer, appear any thing in his conduct, while so 
engaged, that could argue vacillation of intellect, or 
depression of mind. His outward symptoms of ma- 
lady argued no acute or alarming disease. But slow- 
ness of pulse, absence of appetite, difficulty of diges- 
tion, and constant depression of spirits, seemed to 
draw their origin from some hidden cause, which the 
patient was determined to conceal. The deep gloom 
of the unfortunate gentleman — the embarrassment, 
which he could not conceal from his friendly physi- 
cian — the briefness and obvious constraint with 
which he answered the interrogations of his medical 



DEMONoLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 



35 



adviser y induced my friend to take other methods for 
prosecuting his inquiries. He applied to the suf- 
ferer's family, to learn, if possible, the source of that 
secret grief which was gnawing the heart and suck- 
ing the life-blood of his unfortunate patient. The per- 
sons applied to, after conversing together previously, 
denied all knowledge of any cause for the burden 
which obviously affected their relative. So far as 
they knew — and they thought they could hardly be 
deceived — his worldly affairs were prosperous ; no fa- 
mily loss had occurred which could be followed with 
such persevering distress ; no entanglements of affec- 
tion could be supposed to apply to his age, and no 
sensation of severe remorse could be consistent with 
his character. The medical gentleman had finally re- 
course to serious argument with the invalid himself, 
and urged to him the folly of devoting himself to a 
lingering and melancholy death, rather than tell the 
subject of affliction which was thus wasting him. 
He specially pressed upon him the injury which he 
was doing to his own character, by suffering it to be 
inferred that the secret cause of his dejection and its 
consequences was something too scandalous or fla- 
gitious to be made known, bequeathing in this man- 
ner to his family a suspected and dishonoured name, 
and leaving a memory with which might be asso- 
ciated the idea of guilt, which the criminal had died 
without confessing. The patient, more moved by 
this species of appeal than by any which had yet 
been urged, expressed his desire to speak out frankly 

to Dr. . Every one else was removed, and the 

door of the sick-room made secure, when he began 
his confession in the following manner : — 

" You cannot, my dear friend, be more conscious 
than I, that I am in the course of dying under the 
oppression of the fatal disease which consumes my 
vital powers; but neither can you understand the na- 
ture of my complaint, and manner in which it acts 
upon me, nor, if you did, I fear, could your zeal and 



36 LETTERS ON 

skill avail to rid me of it." — " It is possible," said the 
physician, " that my skill may not equal my wish of 
serving you; yet medical science has many resources, 
of which those unacquainted with its powers ne- 
ver can form an estimate. But until you plainly 
tell me your symptoms of complaint, it is impossible 
for either of us to say what may or may not be in 
my power, or within that of medicine." — "I may 
answer you," replied the patient, " that my case is 
not a singular one, since we read of it in the famous 
novel of Le Sage. You remember, doubtless, the dis- 
ease of which the Duke d'Olivarez is there stated to 
have died ?" — " Of the idea," answered the medical 
gentleman, " that he was haunted by an apparition, 
to the actual existence of which he gave no credit, 
but died, nevertheless, because he was overcome and 
heart-broken by its imaginary presence." — " I, my 
dearest Doctor," said the sick man, " am in that very 
case ; and so painful and abhorrent is the presence of 
the persecuting vision, that my reason is totally in- 
adequate to combat the effects of my morbid imagina- 
tion, and I am sensible I am dying, a wasted victim 
to an imaginary disease." The medical gentleman 
listened with anxiety to his patient's statement, and 
for the present judiciously avoiding any contradic- 
tion of the sick man's preconceived fancy, contented 
himself with more minute inquiry into the nature of 
the apparition with which he conceived himself 
haunted, and into the history of the mode by which 
so singular a disease had made itself master of his 
imagination, secured, as it seemed, by strong powers 
of the understanding, against an attack so irregular. 
The sick person replied by stating, that its advances 
were gradual, and at first not of a terrible or even 
disagreeable character. To illustrate this, he gave 
the following account of the progress of his disease. 
" My visions," he said, " commenced two or three 
years since, when I found myself from time to time 
embarrassed by the presence of a large cat, which 



DEMONOLOGY AKD WITCHCRAFT. 37 

came and disappeared I could not exactly tell how, 
till the truth was finally forced upon me, and I was 
compelled to regard it as no domestic household cat, 
but as a bubble of the elements, which had no ex- 
istence save in my deranged visual organs, or de- 
praved imagination. Still I had not thatf positive ob- 
jection to the animal entertained by a late gallant 
Highland chieftain, who has been seen to change to 
all the colours of his own plaid, if a cat by accident 
happened to be in the room with him, even though 
he did not see it. On the contrary, I am. rather a 
friend to cats, an with so much equanimity 

the presence of my imaginary attendant, that it had 
become almost indifferent to me ; when within the 
course of a few months it gave place to, or was suc- 
ceeded by, a spectre of a more important sort, or 
which at least had a more imposing appearance. 
This was no other tlian the apparition of a gentle- 
man-usher, dressed as if to wait upon a Lord-Lie a- 
tenant of Ireland, a Lord High Commissioner of the 
Kirk, or any other who bears on his brow the rank 
and stamp of delegated sovereignty. 

" This personage, arrayed in a court-dress, with 
Dag and sword, tamboured waistcoat, and chapeau- 
bras, glided beside me like the ghost of Beau Nash ; 
and whether in my own house or in another, as- 
cended the stairs before me, as if to announce me in 
the drawing-room ; and at some times appeared to 
mingle with the company, though it was sufficiently 
evident that they were not aware of his presence, 
and that I alone was .sensible of the visionary 
honours which this imaginary being seemed desirous 
to render me. This freak of the fancy did not pro- 
duce much impression on me, though it led me to 
entertain doubts on the nature of my disorder, and 
alarm for the effect it might produce upon my intel- 
lects. "*But that modification of my disease also had 
its appointed duration. After a few months, the 
phantom of the gentleman-usher was seen no more, 
D 



38 LETTERS ON 

4 

but was succeeded by one horrible to the sight, and 
distressing to the imagination, being no other than 
the image of death itself — the apparition of a skeleton. 
Alone or in company," said the unfortunate invalid, 
" the presence of this last phantom never quits me. 
I in vain tell myself a hundred times over that it is 
no reality, but merely an image summoned up by the 
morbid acuteness of my own excited imagination, 
and deranged organs of sight. But what avail such 
reflections, while the emblem at once and presage 
of mortality is before my eyes, and while I feel 
myself, though in fancy only, the companion of a 
phantom representing, a ghastly inhabitant of the 
grave, 'even while I yet breathe on the earth ? Science, 
philosophy, even religion has no cure for such a dis- 
order ; and I feel too surely that 1 shall die the vic- 
tim to so melancholy a disease, although I have no 
belief whatever in the reality of the phantom which 
it places before me." 

The physician was distressed to perceive, from 
these details, how strongly this visionary apparition 
was fixed in the imagination of his patient. He in- 
geniously urged the sick man, who was then in bed, 
with questions concerning the circumstances of the 
phantom's appearance, trusting he might lead him, 
as a sensible man, into such contradictions and in- 
consistencies as might bring his common sense, 
which seemed to be unimpaired, so strongly into the 
field, as might combat successfully the fantastic 
disorder which produced such fatal effects. " This 
skeleton, then," said the Doctor, " seems to you to 
be always present to your eyes V — " It is my fate, 
unhappily," answered the invalid, " always to see it." 
— "Then I understand," continued the physician, "it 
is now present to your imagination?" — "To my 
imagination it certainly is so," replied the sick man. 
— "And in what part of the chamber do you now 
conceive the apparition to appear'?" the physician 
inquired. "Immediately at the foot of my bed; 



DEM0N0L0GY AND WITCHCRAFT. 39 

when the curtains are left a little open," answered 
the invalid, " the skeleton, to my thinking, is placed 
between them, and fills the vacant space." — " You 
say you are sensible of the delusion," said his friend ; 
" have you firmness to convince yourself of the truth 
of this ? Can you take courage enough to rise and 
place yourself in the spot so seeming to be occupied, 
and convince yourself of the illusion V* The poor 
man sighed, and shook his head negatively. " Well," 
said the doctor, " we will try the experiment other- 
wise." Accordingly, he rose from his chair by the 
bedside, and placing himself between the two half- 
drawn curtains at the foot of the bed, indicated as 
the place occupied by the apparition, asked if the 
spectre was still visible 1 " Not entirely so," replied 
the patient, " because your person is between him and 
me; but I observe his scull peering above your 
shoulder." 

It is alleged the man of science started on the 
instant, despite philosophy, on receiving an answer 
ascertaining, with such minuteness, that the ideal 
spectre was close to his own person. He resorted 
to other means of investigation and cure, but with 
equally indifferent success. The patient sunk into 
deeper and deeper dejection, and died in the same 
distress of mind in which he had spent the latter 
months of his life ; and his case remains a melan- 
choly instance of the power of imagination to kill 
the body, even when its fantastic terrors cannot over- 
come the intellect of the unfortunate persons who 
suffer under them. The patient, in the present case, 
sunk under his malady; and the circumstances of 
his singular disorder remaining concealed, he did 
not, by his death and last illness, lose any of the 
well-merited reputation for prudence and sagacity 
which had attended him during the whole course of 
his life. 

Having added these two remarkable instances to 
the general train of similar facts quoted by Ferriar, 



40 LETTERS ON 

Hibbert, and other writers, who have more recently 
considered the subject, there can, we think, be little 
doubt of the proposition, that the external organs 
may, from various causes, become so much deranged, 
as to make false representations to the mind ; and 
that, in such cases, men, in the literal sense, really 
see the empty and false forms, and hear the ideal 
sounds, which, in a more primitive state of society, 
are naturally enough referred to the action of demons 
or disimbodied spirits. In such unhappy cases, the 
patient is intellectually in the condition of a general ■ 
whose spies have been bribed by the enemy, and 
who must engage himself in the difficult and delicate 
task of examining and correcting, by his own powers 
of argument, the probability of the reports which 
are too inconsistent to be trusted to. 

But there is a corollary to this proposition, which 
is worthy of notice. The same species of organic 
derangement which, as a continued habit of his 
deranged vision, presented the subject of our last 
tale with the successive apparitions of his cat, his 
gentleman-usher, and the fatal skeleton, may occupy, 
for a brief or almost momentary space, the vision of 
men who are otherwise perfectly clear-sighted. 
Transitory deceptions are thus presented to the 
organs, which, when they occur to men of strength 
of mind and of education, give way to scrutiny, and, 
their character being once investigated, the true takes 
the place of the unreal representation. But in igno- 
rant times, those instances in which any object is 
misrepresented, whether through the action of the 
senses, or of the imagination, or the combined influ- 
ence of both, for however short a space of time, may 
be admitted as direct evidence of a supernatural 
apparition ; a proof the more difficult to be disputed, 
if the phantom has been personally witnessed by a 
man of sense and estimation, who, perhaps, satisfied 
in the general as to the actual existence of appari- 
tions, has not taken time or trouble to correct his 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 41 

first impressions. This species of deception is so 
frequent, that one of the greatest poets of the pre- 
sent time answered a lady who asked him if he 
believed in ghosts. — "No, madam; I have seen 
too many myself." I may mention one or two 
instances of the kind, to which no doubt can be 
attached. 

The first shall be the apparition of Maupertuis, 
to a brother professor in the Royal Society of 
Berlin. 

This extraordinary circumstance appeared in the 
Transactions of the Society, but is thus stated by M. 
Thiebault, in his "Recollections of Frederick the 
Great and the Court of Berlin." It is necessary to 
premise that M. Gleditsch, to whom the circumstance 
happened, was a botanist of eminence, holding the 
professorship of natural philosophy at Berlin, and 
Tespected as a man of an habitually serious, simple, 
and tranquil character. 

A short time after the death of Maupertuis,* M. 
Gleditsch being obliged to traverse the hall in which 
the Academy held its sittings, having some arrange- 
ments to make in the cabinet of natural history, 
which was under his charge, and being willing to 
complete them on the Thursday before the meeting, 
he perceived, on entering the hall, the apparition of 
M. de Maupertuis, upright and stationary, in the first 
angle on his left hand, having his eyes fixed on him. 
This was about three o'clock in the afternoon. The 
professor of natural philosophy was too well ac- 
quainted with physical science to suppose that his 
late president, who had died at Bale, in the family 
of Messrs. Bernoullie, could have found his way back 
to Berlin in person. He regarded the apparition in 
no other light than as a phantom produced by some 

^ * Long the president of the Berlin Academy, and much favoured by 
Frederick U. , till he was overwhelmed by the ridicule of Voltaire. He 
retired, in a species of disgrace, to his native country of Switzerland, 
and died there shortly afterward, 

D2 



42 LETTERS ON 

derangement of his own proper organs. M. Gleditsch 
went to his own business, without stopping longer 
than to ascertain exactly the appearance of that 
object. But he related the vision to his brethren, 
and assured them that it was as defined and perfect 
as the actual person of Maupertuis could have pre- 
sented. When it is recollected that Maupertuis died 
at a distance from Berlin, once the scene of his tri- 
umphs — overwhelmed by the petulant ridicule of 
Voltaire, and out of favour with Frederick, with 
whom to be ridiculous was to be worthless — we can 
hardly wonder at the imagination even of a man of 
physical science calling up his Eidolon in the hall of 
his former greatness. 

The sober-minded professor did not, however, 
push his investigation to the point to which it was 
carried by a gallant soldier, from whose mouth a par- 
ticular friend of the author received the following 
circumstances of a similar story. 

Captain C was a native of Britain, but bred 

in the Irish Brigade. He was a man of the most 
dauntless courage, which he displayed in some un- * 
commonly desperate adventures during the first 
years of the French Revolution, being repeatedly 
employed by the royal family in very dangerous 
commissions. After the King's death he came over 
to England, and it was then the following circum- 
stance took place. 

Captain C was a Catholic, and, in his hour 

of adversity at least, sincerely attached to the duties 
of his religion. His confessor was a clergyman who 
was residing as chaplain to a man of rank in the 
west of England, about four miles from the place 

where Captain C lived. On riding over one 

morning to see this gentleman, his penitent had the 
misfortune to find him very ill from a dangerous com- 
plaint. He retired in great distress and apprehension 
of his friend's life, and the feeling brought back upon 
him many other painful and disagreeable recollec- 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 43 

lions.. These occupied him till the hour of retiring 
to bed, when, to his great astonishment, he saw in the 
room the figure of the absent confessor. He ad- 
dressed it, but received no answer — the eyes alone 
were impressed by the appearance. Determined to 

push the matter to the end, Captain C advanced 

on the phantom, which appeared to retreat gradually 
before him. In this manner he followed it round the 
bed, when it seemed to sink down on an elbow chair, 
and remain there in a sitting posture. To ascertain 
positively the nature of the apparition, the soldier 
himself sat down on the same chair, ascertaining 
thus, beyond question, that the whole was illusion ; 
yet he owned that, had his friend died about the same 
time, he would not well have known what name to 
give to his vision. But as the confessor recovered, 
and, in Dr. Johnson's phrase, " nothing came of it," 
the incident was only remarkable as showing that 
men of the strongest nerves are not exempted from 
such delusions. 

Another illusion of the same nature we have the 
best reason for vouching as a fact, though, for certain 
reasons, we do not give the names of the parties. 
Not long after the death of a late illustrious poet, 
who had filled, while living, a great station in the eye 
of the public, a literary friend, to whom the deceased 
had been well known, was engaged, during the dark- 
ening twilight of an autumn evening, in perusing one 
of the publications which professed to detail the 
habits and opinions of the distinguished individual 
who was now no more. As the reader had enjoyed 
the intimacy of the deceased to a considerable degree, 
he was deeply interested in the publication, which 
contains some particulars relating to himself and 
other friends. A visiter was sitting in the apartment, 
who was also engaged in reading. Their sitting- 
room opened into an entrance-hall, rather fantasti- 
cally fitted up with articles of armour, skins of wild 
animals, and the like. It was when laying down his 



44 LETTERS ON 

book, and passing into this hall, through which the 
moon was beginning to shine, that the individual of 
whom I speak, saw, right before him, and in a stand- 
ing posture, the exact representation of his departed 
friend, whose recollection had been so strongly 
brought to his imagination. He stopped for a single 
moment, so as to notice the wonderful accuracy with 
which fancy had impressed upon the bodily eye the 
peculiarities of dress and posture of the illustrious 
poet. Sensible, however, of the delusion, he felt no 
sentiment save that of wonder at the extraordinary 
accuracy of the resemblance, and stepped onwards 
towards the figure, which resolved itself, as he ap- 
proached, into the various materials of which it was 
composed. These were merely a screen, occupied 
by great-coats, shawls, plaids, and such other articles 
as usually are found in a country entrance-hall. The 
spectator returned to the spot from which he had seen 
the illusion, and endeavoured, with all his power, to 
recall the image which had been so singularly vivid. 
But this was beyond his capacity ; and the person 
who had witnessed the apparition, or, more properly, 
whose excited state had been the means of raising 
it, had only to return into the apartment, and tell his 
young friend under what a striking hallucination he 
had for a moment laboured. 

There is every reason to believe that instances of 
this kind are frequent among persons of a certain 
temperament, and when such occur in an early period 
of society, they are almost certain to be considered as 
real supernatural appearances. They differ from 
those of Nicolai, and others formerly noticed, as being 
of short duration, and constituting no habitual or con- 
stitutional derangement of the system. The appa- 
rition of Maupertuis to Monsieur Gleditsch, that of 

the Catholic clergyman to Captain C , that of a 

late poet to his friend, are of the latter character. 
They bear to the former the analogy, as we may say, 
which a sudden and temporary fever-fit has to a serious 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 45 

feverish illness. But, even for this very reason, it is 
more difficult to bring such momentary impressions 
back to their real sphere of optical illusions, since they 
accord much better with our idea of glimpses of the 
future world than those in which the vision is con- 
tinued or repeated for hours, days, and months, af- 
fording opportunities of discovering, from other cir- 
cumstances, that the symptom originates in deranged 
health. 

Before concluding these observations upon the de- 
ceptions of the senses, we must remark, that the 
eye is the organ most essential to the purpose of 
realizing to our mind the appearance of external ob- 
jects, and that when the visual organ becomes de- 
praved for a greater or less time, and to a farther or 
more limited extent, its misrepresentation of the ob- 
jects of sight is peculiarly apt to terminate in such 
hallucinations as those we have been detailing. Yet 
the other senses or organs, in their turn, and to the ex- 
tent of their power, are as ready, in their various de- 
partments, as the sight itself, to retain false or doubtful 
impressions, which mislead, instead of informing, 
the party to whom they are addressed. 

Thus, in regard to the ear, the next organ in im- 
portance to the eye, we are repeatedly deceived by 
such sounds as are imperfectly gathered up and erro- 
neously apprehended. From the false impressions 
received from this organ, also, arise consequences 
similar to those derived from erroneous reports made 
by the organs of sight. A whole class of supersti- 
tious observances arise, and are grounded upon inac- 
curate and imperfect hearing. To the excited and 
imperfect state of the ear, we owe the existence of 
what Milton sublimely calls 

The airy tongues that syllable men's names, 
On shores, in desert sands, and wildernesses. 

These also appear such natural causes of alarm, that 
we do not sympathize more readily with Robinson 



46 LETTERS ON 

Crusoe's apprehensions when he witnesses the print 
of the savage's foot in the sand, than in those which 
arise from his being waked from sleep by some one 
calling his name in the solitary island, where there 
existed no man but the shipwrecked mariner himself. 
Amid the train of superstitions deduced from the 
imperfections of the ear, we may quote that visionary 
summons which the natives of the Hebrides acknow- 
ledged as one sure sign of approaching fate. The 
voice of some absent or, probably, some deceased 
relative was, in such cases, heard as repeating the 
party's name. Sometimes the aerial siunmoner inti- 
mated his own death, and at others it was no uncom- 
mon circumstance that the person who fancied him- 
self so called, died in consequence; — for the same 
reason that the negro pines to death who is laid 
under the ban of an Obi woman, or the Cambro-Bri- 
ton, whose name is put into the famous cursing well, 
with the usual ceremonies, devoting him to the in- 
fernal gods, wastes away and dies, as one doomed 
to do so. It may be remarked also, that Dr. Johnson 
retained a deep impression that, while he was open- 
ing the door of his college chambers, he heard the 
voice of his mother, then at many miles' distance, 
call him by his name ; and it appears he was rather 
disappointed that no event of consequence followed a 
summons sounding so decidedly supernatural. It is 
unnecessary to dwell on this sort of auricular de- 
ception, of which most men's recollection will sup- 
ply instances. The following may be stated as one 
serving to show by what slender accidents the human 
ear may be imposed upon. The author was walking, 
about two years since, in a wild and solitary scene 
with a young friend, who laboured under the infirm- 
ity of a severe deafness, when he heard what he con- 
ceived to be the cry of a distant pack of hounds, 
sounding intermittedly. As the season was summer, 
this, on a moment's reflection, satisfied the hearer 
that it could not be the clamour of an actual chase, 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 47 

and yet his ears repeatedly brought back the sup- 
posed cry. He called upon his own dogs, of which 
two or three were with the walking party. They 
came in quietly, and obviously had no accession to 
the sounds which had caught the author's attention, 
so that he could not help saying to his companion, 
" I am doubly sorry for your infirmity at this moment, 
for I could otherwise have let you hear the cry of 
the Wild Huntsman." As the young gentleman used 
a hearing tube, he turned when spoken to, and in 
doing so, the cause of the phenomenon became appa- 
rent. The supposed distant sound was in fact a nigh 
one, being the singing of the wind in the instrument 
which the young gentleman was obliged to use, but 
which, from various circumstances, had never occurred 
to his elder friend as likely to produce the sounds he 
had heard. 

It is scarce necessary to add, that the highly ima- 
ginative superstition of the Wild Huntsman in Ger- 
many seems to have had its origin in strong fancy, 
operating upon the auricular deceptions, respecting 
the numerous sounds likely to occur in the dark re- 
cesses of pathless forests. The same clew may be 
found to the kindred Scottish belief, so finely imbo- 
died by the nameless author of " Albania :"— 

"There, since of old the haughty Thanes of Ross 
Were wont, with clans and ready vassals throng'd, 
To wake the bounding stag, or guilty wolf; 
There oft is heard at midnight or at noon, 
Beginning faint, but rising still more loud, 
And louder, voice of hunters, and of hounds, 
And horns hoarse- winded, blowing far and keen. 
Forthwith the hubbub multiplies, the air 
Labours with louder shouts and rif'er din 
Of close pursuit, the broken cry of deer 
Mangled by throttling dogs, the shouts of men, 
And hoofs, thick-beating on the hollow hill : 
Sudden the grazing heifer in the vale 
Starts at the tumult, and the herdsman's ears 
Tingle with inward dread. Aghast he eyes 
The upland ridge, and every mountain round, 
But not one trace of living wight discerns, 
Nor knows, o'erawed and trembling as he stands, 



48 LETTERS ON 

To what or whom he owes his idle fear — 

To ghost, to witch, to fairy, or to fiend, 

But wonders, and no end of wondering finds."* 

It must also be remembered, that to the auricular 
deceptions practised by the means of ventriloquism 
or otherwise, may be traced many of the most suc- 
cessful impostures which credulity has received as 
supernatural communications. 

The sense of touch seems less liable to perversion 
than either that of sight or smell, nor are there many 
cases in which it can become accessary to such false 
intelligence, as the eye and ear, collecting their ob- 
jects from a greater distance, and by less accurate 
inquiry, are but too ready to convey. Yet there is 
one circumstance in which the sense of touch as well 
as others is very apt to betray its possessor into in- 
accuracy, in respect to the circumstances which it 
impresses on its owner. The case occurs during 
sleep, when the dreamer touches with his hand some 
other part of his own person. He is clearly, in this 
case, both the actor and patient, both the proprietor 
of the member touching, and of that which is touched ; 
while, to increase the complication, the hand is both 
toucher of the limb on which it rests, and receives 
an impression of touch from it ; and the same is the 
case with the limb, which at one and the same time 
receives an impression from the hand, and conveys 
to the mind a report respecting the size, substance, 
and the like, of the member touching. Now, as during 
sleep, the patient is unconscious that both limbs are 
his own identical property, his mind is apt to be much 
disturbed by the complication of sensations arising 
from two parts of his person being at once acted upon, 

* The poem of " Albania" is, in its original folio edition, so extremely 
scarce, that I have only seen a copy belonging to the amiable and in- 
genious Dr. Beattie, besides the one which I myself possess, printed in 
the earlier part of last century. It was reprinted by my late friend Dr 
Leyden, in a small volume, entitled " Scottish Descriptive Poems." 
" Albania" contains the above, and many other poetical passages of the 
highest merit. 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 49 

and from their reciprocal action and false impres- 
sions are thus received, which, accurately inquired 
into, would afford a clew to many puzzling pheno- 
mena in the theory of dreams. This peculiarity of 
the organ of touch, as also that it is confined to no 
particular organ, but is diffused over the whole per- 
son of the man, is noticed by Lucretius : — 

Ut si forte manu, quam vis jam corporis, ipse 
Tute tibi partem ferias, seque experiare. 

A remarkable instance of such an illusion was told 
me by a late nobleman. He had fallen asleep, with 
some uneasy feelings arising from indigestion. They 
operated in their usual course of visionary terrors. 
At length they were all summed up in the apprehen- 
sion, that the phantom of a dead man held the sleeper 
by the wrist, and endeavoured to drag him out of 
bed. He awaked in horror, and still felt the cold 
dead grasp of a corpse's hand on his right wrist. It 
was a minute before he discovered that his own left 
hand was in a state of numbness, and with it he had 
accidentally encircled his right arm. 

The taste and the smell, like the touch, convey 
more direct intelligence than the eye and the ear, 
and are less likely than those senses to aid in mis- 
leading the imagination. We have seen the palate, 
in the case of the porridge-fed lunatic, enter its 
protest against the acquiescence of eyes, ears, and 
touch, in the gay visions which gilded the patient's 
confinement. The palate, however, is subject to 
imposition as well as the other senses. The best 
and most acute bon vivant loses his power of dis- 
criminating between different kinds of wine, if he is 
prevented from assisting his palate by the aid of his 
eyes, — that is, if the glasses of each are administered 
indiscriminately while he is blindfolded. Nay, we 
are authorized to believe, that individuals have died 
in consequence of Saving supposed themselves to 
have taken poison, when, in reality, the draught 
E 



50 LETTERS OK 

they had swallowed as such, was of an innoxious or 
restorative quality. The delusions of the stomach can 
seldom bear upon our present subject, and are not 
otherwise connected with supernatural appearances, 
than as a good dinner and its accompaniments are 
essential in fitting out a daring Tarn O'Shanter, who 
is fittest to encounter them, when the poet's observa- 
tion is not unlikely to apply — 

" Inspiring bauld John Barleycorn, 
What dangers thou canst make us scorn ? 
Wi' tippenny we fear nae evil, 
Wi' usquebae we '11 face the Devil, 
The swats sae ream'din Tammie's noddle, 
Fair play, he caredna deils a bodle !" 

Neither has the sense of smell, in its ordinary 
state, much connexion with our present subject. 
Mr. Aubrey tells us, indeed, of an apparition, which 
disappeared with a curious perfume as well as a 
most melodious twang ; and popular belief ascribes 
to the presence of infernal spirits, a strong relish 
of the sulphureous element of which they are in- 
habitants. Such accompaniments, therefore, are 
usually united with other materials for imposture. 
If, as a general opinion assures us, which is not 
positively discountenanced by Dr. Hibbert, by the 
inhalation of certain gases or poisonous herbs, 
necromancers can dispose a person to believe he 
sees phantoms, it is likely that the nostrils are 
made to inhale such suffumigation, as well as the 
mouth.* 

I have now arrived, by a devious path, at the 
conclusion of this letter, the object of which is to 

* Most ancient authors, who pretend to treat of the wonders of na- 
tural magic, give receipts for calling up phantoms. The lighting lamps 
fed by peculiar kinds of medicated oil, and the use of suffumigaiions 
of strong and deleterious herbs, are the means recommended. From 
these authorities, perhaps, a professor of legerdemain assured Dr. 
Alderson, of Hull, that he could compose a preparation of antimony, 
sulphur, and other drugs, which, when burnt in a confined room, wouid 
have the effect of causing the patient to suppose he saw phantoms. — 
See Hibbert an Apparitions^. 120. 



DES0NOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 51 

show from what attributes of our nature, whether 
mental or corporeal, arises that predisposition to 
believe in supernatural occurrences. It is, I think, 
conclusive, that mankind, from a very early period, 
have their minds prepared for such events by the 
consciousness of the existence of a spiritual world, 
inferring in the general proposition the undeniable 
truth, that each man, from the monarch to the 
beggar, who has once acted his part on the stage, 
continues to exist, and may again, even in a dis- 
embodied state, if such is the pleasure of Heaven, 
for aught that we know to the contrary, be per- 
mitted or ordained to mingle among those who 
yet remain in the body. The abstract possibility 
of apparitions must be admitted by even- one who 
believes in a Deity and his superintending omni- 
potence. But imagination is apt to intrude its 
explanations and inferences founded on inadequate 
evidence. Sometimes our violent and inordinate 
passions, originating in sorrow for our friends, 
remorse for our crimes, our eagerness of patriot- 
ism, or our deep sense of devotion — these or other 
violent excitements of a moral character, in the 
visions of night, or the rapt ecstasy of the day, 
persuade us that we witness, with our eyes and ears, 
an actual instance of that supernatural communica- 
tion, the possibility of which cannot be denied. At 
other times, the corporeal organs impose upon the 
mind, while the eye and the ear, diseased, deranged, 
or misled, convey false impressions to the patient. 
Very often both the mental delusion and the physical 
deception exist at the same time, and men's belief 
of the phenomena presented to them, however errone- 
ously, by the senses, is the firmer and more readily 
granted, that the physical impression corresponded 
with the mental excitement. 

So many causes acting thus upon each other in 
various degrees, or sometimes separately, it must 
happen early in the infancy of every society, that 






52 LETTERS ON 

there should occur many apparently well-authen- 
ticated instances of supernatural intercourse, satis- 
factory enough to authenticate peculiar examples 
of the general proposition which is impressed upon 
us by belief of the immortality of the soul. These 
examples of undeniable apparitions (for they are 
apprehended to be incontrovertible), fall like the 
seed of the husbandman, into fertile and prepared 
soil, and are usually followed by a plentiful crop of 
superstitious figments, which derive their sources 
from circumstances and enactments in sacred and 
profane hi story, hastily adopted, and prevented from 
their genuine reading. This shall be the subject of 
my next letter. 



LETTER II. 

Consequences of the Fallonthe communication between Men and the 
Spiritual World— Effects of the Flood— Wizards of Pharaoh— Text 
in Exodus against Witches— The word Witch is by some said to mean 
merely Poisoner — Or if in the Holy Text it also means a Divineress, she 
must, at any rate, have been a Character very different to be identified 
with it — The original, Ckasaph, said to mean a Person who dealt in 
Poisons, often a traffic of those who dealt with familiar Spirits— But 
different from the European Witch of the Middle Ages — Thus a 
Witch is not accessary to the Temptation of Job — The Witch of the 
Hebrews probably did not rank higher than a Divining Woman — Yet 
it was a Crime deserving the Doom of Death, since it inferred the 
disowning of Jehovah's Supremacy — Other Texts of Scripture, in like 
manner, refer to something corresponding more with a Fortune-teller 
or Divining Woman, than what is now called a Witch — Example of 
the Witch of Endor — Account of her Meeting with Saul — Supposed 
by some a mere Impostor — By others, a Sorceress powerful enough to 
raise the Spirit of the Prophet by her own Art— Difficulties attending 
both Positions — A middle course adopted, supposing that, as in the 
case of Balak, the Almighty had, by exertion of his Will, substituted 
Samuel, or a good spiiit in his character, for the deception which the 
Witch intended to produce — Resumption of the Argument, showing 
that the Witch of Endor signified something very different from the 
modern ideas of Witchcraft — The Witches mentioned in the New 
Testament are not less different from modern ideas, than those of the 
Books of Moses, nor do they appear to have possessed the Power 
ascribed to Magicians— Articles of Faith which we may gather from 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 53 

Scripture on this Point — That there might be certain Powers permitted 
by the Almighty to inferior, and even evil Spirits, is possible ; and in 
some Sense, the Gods of the Heathens might be accounted Demons — 
More frequently, and in a general Sense, they were but Logs of Wood, 
without Sense or Power of any Kind, and their Worship founded on 
Imposture — Opinion that the Oracles were silenced at the Nativity, 
adopted by Milton — Cases of Demoniacs — The incarnate Possessions 
probably ceased at the same Time as the Intervention of Miracles — 
Opinion of the Catholics— Result that Witchcraft, as the Word is 
interpreted in the Middle Ages, neither occurs under the Mosaic or 
Gospel Dispensation— It arose in the ignorant Period, when the 
Christians considered the Gods of the Mahommedan or Heathen Na- 
tions as Fiends, and their Priests as Conjurers or Wizards — Instance 
as to the Saracens, and among the Northern Europeans yet unconvert- 
ed—The Gods of Mexico and Peru explained on the same System— 
Also the Powahs of North America — Opinion of Mather — Gibb, a 
supposed Warlock, persecuted by the other Dissenters — Conclusion. 

What degree of communication might have existed 
between the human race and the inhabitants of the 
other world, had our first parents kept the commands 
of the Creator, can only be a subject of unavailing 
speculation. We do not, perhaps, presume too much 
when we suppose, with Milton, that one necessary- 
consequence of eating the " fruit of that forbidden 
tree," was removing to a wider distance from celestial 
essences the beings, who, although originally but a 
little lower than the angels, had, by their own crime, 
forfeited the gift of immortality, and degraded them- 
selves into an inferior rank in creation. 

Some communication between the spiritual world, 
by the union of those termed in Scripture " Sons of 
God," and the daughters of Adam, still continued 
after the fall, though their inter-alliance was not 
approved of by the Ruler of mankind. We are 
given to understand, darkly indeed, but with as much 
certainty as we can be entitled to require, that the 
mixture between the two species of created beings 
was sinful on the part of both, and displeasing to the 
Almighty. It is probable, also, that the extreme 
longevity of the antediluvian mortals prevented their 
feeling sufficiently that they had brought themselves 
under the banner of Azrael, the angel of death, and 
removed to too great a distance the period between 
E3 



54 LETTERS ON 

their crime and its punishment. The date of the 
avenging Flood gave birth to a race, whose life was 
gradually shortened, and who, being admitted to 
slighter and rarer intimacy with beings who pos- 
sessed a higher rank in creation, assumed, as of 
course, a lower position in the scale. Accordingly, 
after this period, we hear no more of those unnatural 
alliances which preceded the flood, and are given to 
understand that mankind, dispersing into different 
parts of the world, separated from each other, and 
began, in various places, and under separate auspices, 
to pursue the work of replenishing the world, which 
had been imposed upon them as an end of their crea- 
tion. In the meantime, while the Deity was pleased 
to continue his manifestations to those who were 
destined to be the fathers of his elect people, we are 
made to understand that wicked men, it ma}?- be by 
the assistance of fallen angels, were enabled to assert 
rank with, and attempt to match, the prophets of the 
God of Israel. The matter must remain uncertain, 
whether it was by sorceiy or legerdemain that the 
wizards of Pharaoh, King of Egypt, contended with 
Moses, in the face of the prince and people, changed 
their rods into serpents, and imitated several of 'the 
plagues denounced against the devoted kingdom. 
Those powers of the Magi, however, whether obtained 
by supernatural communications, or arising from know- 
ledge of legerdemain and its kindred accomplishments, 
were openly exhibited ; and who can doubt that, though 
we may be left in some darkness both respecting the 
extent of their skill and the source from which it 
was drawn, we are told all which it can be important 
for us to know 1 We arrive here at the period when 
the Almighty chose to take upon himself directly to 
legislate for his chosen people, without having 
obtained any accurate knowledge, whether the crime 
of witchcraft, or the intercourse between the spiritual 
world and imbodied beings, for evil purposes, either 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 55 

existed after the flood, or was visited with any open 
marks of Divine displeasure. 

But in the Law of Moses, dictated by the Divinity 
himself, was announced a text, which, as interpreted 
literally, having been inserted into the criminal code 
of all Christian nations, has occasioned much cruelty 
and bloodshed, either from its tenor being misunder- 
stood, or that, being exclusively calculated for the 
Israelites, it made part of the judicial Mosaic dispen- 
sation, and was abrogated, like the greater part of 
that law, by the more benign and clement dispensa- 
tion of the Gospel, 

The text alluded to is that verse of the twenty- 
second chapter of Exodus, bearing, " men shall not 
suffer a witch to live." Many learned men have 
affirmed, that in this remarkable passage the Hebrew 
word chasaph means nothing more than poisoner, 
although, like the word veneficus, by which it is ren- 
dered in the Latin version of the Septuagint, other 
learned men contend, that it hath the meaning of a 
witch also, and may be understood as denoting a 
person who pretended to hurt his or her neighbours 
in life, limb, or goods, either by noxious potions, by 
charms, or similar mystical means. In this particular 
the witches of Scripture had probably some resem- 
blance to those of ancient Europe, who, although 
their skill and power might be safely despised, as 
long as they confined themselves to their charms and 
spells, were very apt to eke out their capacity of 
mischief by the use of actual poison, so that the 
epithet of sorceress and poisoner were almost syno- 
nymous. This is known to have been the case in 
many of those darker iniquities, which bear as their 
characteristic something connected with hidden and 
prohibited arts. Such was the statement in the 
indictment of those concerned in the famous murder 
of Sir Thomas Overbury, when the arts^of Forman 
and other sorcerers having been found insufficient to 
touch the victim's life, practice by poison was at 



56 LETTERS ON 

length successfully resorted to ; and numerous simi- 
lar instances might be quoted. But supposing that 
the Hebrew witch proceeded only by charms, invo- 
cations, or such means as might be imioxious, save 
for the assistance of demons or familiars, the con- 
nexion between the conjurer and the demon must 
have been of a very different character, under the 
law of Moses, from that which was conceived, in 
latter days, to constitute witchcraft. There was no 
contract of subjection to a diabolic power, no infernal 
stamp or sign of such a fatal league, no revellings of 
Satan and his hags, and no infliction of disease or 
misfortune upon good men. At least there is not a 
word in Scripture authorizing us to believe that 
such a system existed. On the contrary, we are 
told (how far literally, how far metaphorically, it is 
not for us to determine), that, when the Enemy of 
mankind desired to probe the virtue of Job to the 
bottom, he applied for permission to the Supreme 
Governor of the world, who granted him liberty to 
try his faithful servant with a storm of disasters, for 
the more brilliant exhibition of the faith which he 
reposed in his Maker. In all this, had the scene 
occurred after the manner of the like events in latter 
days, witchcraft, sorceries, and charms would have 
been introduced, and the Devil, instead of his own 
permitted agency, would have employed his servant 
the witch, as the necessary instrument of the Man 
of Uz's afflictions. In like manner, Satan desired 
to have Peter, that he might sift him like wheat. 
But neither is there here the agency of any sorcerer 
or witch. Luke xxii. 31. 

Supposing the powers of the witch to be limited, 
in the time of Moses, to inquiries at some pretended 
deity or real evil spirit concerning future events, in 
what respect, may it be said, did such a crime 
deserve the severe punishment of death] To an- 
swer this question, we must reflect, that the object 
of the Mosaic dispensation being to preserve the 



DEM0N0L0GY AND WITCHCRAFT. 57 

knowledge of the true Deity within the breasts of 
a selected and separated people, the God of Jacob 
necessarily showed himself a jealous God to all who, 
straying from the path of direct worship of Jehovah, 
had recourse to other deities, whether idols or evil 
spirits, the gods of the neighbouring heathen. The 
swerving from their allegiance to the true Divinity, 
to the extent of praying to senseless stocks and 
stones, which could return them no answer, was, by 
the Jewish law, an act of rebellion to their own Lord 
God, and as such most fit to be pimished capitally. 
Thus the prophets of Baal were deservedly put to 
death, not on account of any success which they might 
obtain by their intercessions and invocations (which, 
though enhanced with all their vehemence, to the 
extent of cutting and wounding themselves, proved, 
so utterly unavailing, as to incur the ridicule of the 
prophet), but because they were guilty of apostacy 
from the real Deity, while they worshipped, and en- 
couraged others to worship, the false divinity Baal. 
The Hebrew witch, therefore, or she who commu- 
nicated, or attempted to communicate, with an evil 
spirit, was justly punished with death, though her 
communication with the spiritual world might either 
not exist at all, or be of a nature much less intimate 
than has been ascribed to the witches of later days ; 
nor does the existence of this law, against the 
witches of the Old Testament, sanction, in any re- 
spect, the severity of similar enactments subsequent 
to the Christian revelation, against a different class of 
persons, accused of a very different species of crime. 
In another passage, the practices of those persons 
termed witches in the Holy Scriptures, are again 
alluded to ; and again it is made manifest that the 
sorcery or witchcraft of the Old Testament resolves 
itself into a trafficking with idols, and asking counsel 
of false deities ; in other words, into idolatry, which, 
notwithstanding repeated prohibitions, examples, and 
judgments, was still the prevailing crime of the 



58 LETTERS ON 

Israelites. The passage alluded to is in Deuteronomy 
xviii. 10, 11. — " There shall not be found among you 
any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass 
through the fire, or that useth divination, or an ob- 
server of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a 
charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a 
wizard, or a necromancer." Similar denunciations 
occur in the nineteenth and twentieth chapters of 
Leviticus. In like manner, it is a charge against 
Manasses, 2 Chronicles xxxviii., that he caused his 
children to pass through the fire, observed times, used 
enchantments and witchcraft, and dealt with familiar 
spirits and with wizards. These passages seem to 
concur with the former in classing witchcraft among 
other desertions of the prophets of the Deity, in 
order to obtain responses by the superstitious prac- 
tices of the pagan nations around them. To under- 
stand the texts otherwise, seems to confound the 
modern system of witchcraft, with all its unnatural 
and improbable outrages on common sense, with the 
crime of the person who, in classical days, consulted 
the oracle of Apollo ; — a capital offence in a Jew, 
but surely a venial sin in an ignorant and deluded 
pagan." 

To illustrate the nature of the Hebrew witch and 
her prohibited criminal traffic, those who have 
written on this subject have naturally dwelt upon 
the interview between Saul and the Witch of Endor, 
the only detailed and particular account of such a 
transaction which is to be found in the Bible ; — a 
fact, by-the-way, which proves that the crime of 
witchcraft (capitally punished as it was when disco- 
vered), was not frequent among whe chosen people, 
who enjoyed such peculiar manifestations of the Al- 
mighty's presence. The Scriptures seem only to 
have conveyed to us the general fact (being what is 
chiefly edifying) of the interview between the Witch 
and the King of Israel. They infonn us, that Saul, 
disheartened and discouraged by the general defec- 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 59 

tion of his subjects, and the consciousness of his own 
unworthy and ungrateful disobedience, despairing of 
obtaining an answer from the offended Deity, who 
had previously communicated with him through his 
prophets, at length resolved, in his desperation, to 
go to a divining woman, by which course he involved 
himself in the crime of the person whom he thus 
consulted, against whom the law denounced death, 
— a sentence which had been often executed by Saul 
himself on similar offenders. Scripture proceeds 
to give us the general information, that the king di- 
rected the witch to call up the spirit of Samuel, and 
that the female exclaimed, that gods had arisen out 
of the earth — That Saul, more particularly requiring 
a description of the apparition (whom, consequently, 
he did not himself see), she described it as the figure 
of an old man with a mantle. In this figure the 
king acknowledges the resemblance of Samuel, and, 
sinking on his face, hears from the apparition, speak- 
ing in the character of the prophet, the melancholy 
prediction of his own defeat and death. 

In this description, though all is told which is ne- 
cessary to convey to us an awful moral lesson, yet 
we are left ignorant of the minutiae attending the 
apparition, which perhaps we ought to accept as a 
sure sign, that there was no utility in our being made 
acquainted with them. It is impossible, for instance, 
to know with certainty whether Saul was present 
when the woman used her conjuration, or whether 
he himself personally ever saw the appearance 
which the Pythoness described to him. It is left 
still more doubtful whether any thing supernatural 
was actually evoked, or whether the Pythoness and 
her assistant meant to practise a mere deception, 
taking their chance to prophesy the defeat and death 
of the broken-spirited king, as an event which the 
circumstances in which he was placed rendered 
highly probable, since he was surrounded by a su- 
perior army of Philistines, and his character as a 



60 LETTERS ON 

soldier rendered it likely that he would not survive 
a defeat, which must involve the loss of his king- 
dom. On the other hand, admitting that the appa- 
rition had really a supernatural character, it remains 
equally uncertain what was its nature, or by what 
power it was compelled to an appearance, unpleasing, 
as it intimated, since the supposed spirit of Samuel 
asks wherefore he was disquieted in the grave. 
Was the power of the witch over the invisible world 
so great, that, like the Erictho of the heathen poet, 
she could disturb the sleep of the just, and especially 
that of a prophet so important as Samuel ; and are 
we to suppose that he, upon whom the Spirit of the 
Lord was wont to descend, even while he was 
clothed with frail mortality, should be subject to be 
disquieted in his grave, at the voice of a vile witch, 
and the command of an apostate prince ] Did the 
true Deity refuse Saul the response of his prophets, 
and could a witch compel the actual spirit of Samuel 
to make answer notwithstanding 1 

Embarrassed by such difficulties, another course 
of explanation has been resorted to, which, freed 
from some of the objections which attend the two 
extreme suppositions, is yet liable to others. It has 
been supposed that something took place upon this 
remarkable occasion, similar to that which disturbed 
the preconcerted purpose of the prophet Balaam, and 
compelled him to exchange his premeditated curses 
for blessings. According to this hypothesis, the di- 
vining woman of Endor was preparing to practise 
upon Saul those tricks of legerdemain or jugglery by 
which she imposed upon meaner clients who resorted 
to her oracle. Or we may conceive that, in those 
days, when the laws of nature were frequently sus- 
pended by manifestations of the Divine Power, some 
degree of juggling might be permitted between mor- 
tals and the spirits of lesser note ; in which case, we 
must suppose that the woman really expected or 
hoped to call up some supernatural appearance. But 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 61 

in either case, this second solution of the story sup- 
poses that the will of the Almighty substituted, on 
that memorable occasion, for the phantasmagoria in- 1 
tended by the witch, the spirit of Samuel, in his 
earthly resemblance — or, if the reader may think 
this more likely, some good being, the messenger of 
the divine pleasure, in the likeness of the departed 
prophet — and, to the surprise of the Pythoness her- 
self, exchanged the juggling farce of sheer deceit 01 
petty sorcery which she had intended to produce, for 
a deep tragedy, capable of appalling the heart of the 
hardened tyrant, and furnishing an awful lesson to 
future times. 

This exposition has the advantage of explaining 
the surprise expressed by the witch at the unexpect- 
ed consequences of her own invocation, while it re- 
moves the objection of supposing the spirit of Samuel 
subject to her influence. It does not apply so well 
to the complaint of Samuel, that he was disquieted, 
since neither the prophet, nor any good angel wear- 
ing his likeness, could be supposed to complain of an 
apparition which took place in obedience to the di- 
rect command of the Deity. If, however, the phrase 
is understood, not as a murmuring against the plea- 
sure of Providence, but as a reproach to the prophet's 
former friend Saul, that his sins and discontents, 
which were the ultimate cause of Samuel's appear- 
ance, had withdrawn the prophet, for a space, from 
the enjoyment and repose of heaven, to review this 
miserable spot of mortality, guilt, grief, and misfor- 
tune, the words may, according to that interpreta- 
tion, wear no stronger sense of complaint than might 
become the spirit of a just man made perfect, or any 
benevolent angel by whom he might be represented. 
It may be observed, that, in Ecclesiasticus xlvi. 19, 
20, the opinion of Samuel's actual appearance is 
adopted, since it is said of this man of God, that after 
death he prophesied, and showed the king his latter end. 

Leaving the farther discussion of this dark and dif- 
F 



62 LETTERS ON 

ficult question to those whose studies have qualified 
them to give judgment on so obscure a subject, it so 
far appears clear, that the Witch of Endor was not a 
being such as those believed in by our ancestors, who 
could transform themselves and others into the ap- 
pearance of the lower animals ; raise and allay tem- 
pests, frequent the company and join the revels of 
evil spirits, and, by their counsel and assistance, de- 
stroy human lives ; and waste the fruits of the earth, 
or perform feats of such magnitude as to alter the 
face of nature. The Witch of Endor was a mere for- 
tune-teller, to whom, in despair of all aid or answer 
from the Almighty, the unfortunate King of Israel had 
recourse in his despair, and by whom, in some way 
or other, he obtained the awful certainty of his own 
defeat and death. She was liable, indeed, deservedly, 
to the punishment of death, for intruding herself 
upon the task of the real prophets, by whom the 
will of God was, in that time, regularly made known. 
But her existence and her crimes can go no length 
to prove the possibility that another class of witches, 
no otherwise resembling her than as called by the 
same name, either existed at a more recent period, 
or were liable to the same capital punishment, for a 
very different and much more doubtful class of of- 
fences, which, however odious, are nevertheless to be 
proved possible before they can be received as a cri- 
minal charge. 

Whatever may be thought of other occasional 
expressions in the Old Testament, it cannot be 
said, that in any part of that sacred volume, a text 
occurs, indicating the existence of a system of 
witchcraft, under the Jewish dispensation, in any 
respect similar to that against whicli the law- 
books of so many European nations have, till very 
lately, denounced punishment; far less under the 
Christian dispensation — a system under which the 
emancipation of the human race from the Levi- 
tical law was happily and miraculously perfected. 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 63 

This latter crime is supposed to infer a compact 
implying reverence and adoration on the part of the 
witch who comes under the fatal bond, and patron- 
age, support, and assistance on the part of the dia- 
bolical patron. Indeed, in the four Gospels, the word, 
under any sense, does not occur ; although, had the 
possibility of so enormous a sin been admitted, it was 
not likely to escape the warning censure of the Di- 
vine Person who came to take away the sins of the 
world. Saint Paul, indeed, mentions the sin of witch- 
craft in a cursory manner, as superior in guilt to that 
of ingratitude ; and in the offences of the flesh, it is 
ranked immediately after idolatry; which juxtaposi- 
tion inclines us to believe that the witchcraft men- 
tioned by the Apostle must have been analogous to 
that of the Old Testament, and equivalent to resort- 
ing to the assistance of soothsayers, or similar for- 
bidden arts, to acquire knowledge of futurity. Sor- 
cerers are also joined with other criminals, in the 
Book of Revelations, as excluded from the city of 
God. And with these occasional notices, which in- 
dicate that there was a transgression so called, but 
leave us ignorant of its exact nature, the writers upon 
witchcraft attempt to wring out of the New Testa- 
ment proofs of a crime in itself so disgustingly im- 
probable. Neither do the exploits of Elymas, called 
the Sorcerer, or Simon, called Magus, or the Magi- 
cian, entitle them to rank above the class of impos- 
tors, who assumed a character to which they had no 
real title, and put their own mystical and ridiculous 
pretensions to supernatural power in competition 
with those who had been conferred on purpose to 
diffuse the Gospel, and facilitate its reception by the 
exhibition of genuine miracles. It is clear that, from 
his presumptuous and profane proposal to acquire, 
by purchase, a portion of those powers which were 
directly derived from inspiration, Simon Magus dis- 
played a degree of profane and brutal ignorance, in- 
consistent with his possessing even the intelligence 



64 LETTERS ON 

of a skilful impostor ; and it is plain that a leagued 
vassal of hell, should we pronounce him such, would 
have better known his own rank and condition, com- 
pared to that of the Apostle, than to have made such 
a fruitless and unavailing proposal, by which he 
could only expose his own impudence and ignorance. 

With this observation we may conclude our brief 
remarks upon witchcraft, as the word occurs in the 
Scripture ; and it now only remains to mention the 
nature of the demonology, which, as gathered from 
the sacred volumes, every Christian believer is 
bound to receive as a thing declared and proved to 
be true. 

And in the first place, no man can read the Bible, 
or call himself a Christian, without believing that, 
during the course of time comprehended by the 
divine writers, the Deity, to confirm the faith of the 
Jews, and to overcome and confound the pride of 
the heathens, wrought in the land many great mira- 
cles, using either good spirits, the instruments of his 
pleasure, or fallen angels, the permitted agents of 
such evil as it was his will should be inflicted upon, 
or suffered by, the children of men. This proposi- 
tion comprehends, of course, the acknowledgment 
of the truth of miracles during this early period, by 
which the ordinary laws of nature were occasionally 
suspended, and recognises the existence in the spi- 
ritual world of the two grand divisions of angels and 
devils, severally exercising their powers according 
to the commission or permission of the Ruler of the 
universe. 

Secondly, wise men have thought and argued, that 
the idols of the heathen were actually fiends, or 
rather, that these enemies of mankind had power to 
assume the shape and appearance of those feeble 
deities, and to give a certain degree of countenance 
to the faith of the worshippers, by working seeming 
miracles, and returning, by their priests or their ora- 
cles, responses which "palter'd in a double sense" 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 65 

with the deluded persons who consulted them. 
Most of the fathers of the Christian church have inti- 
mated such an opinion. This doctrine has the ad- 
vantage of affording, to a certain extent, a confirma- 
tion of many miracles related in pagan or classical 
history, which are thus ascribed to the agency of 
evil spirits. It corresponds also with the texts of 
Scripture, which declare that the gods of the heathen 
are all devils and evil spirits ; and the idols of Egypt 
are classed, as in Isaiah, chap. xix. ver. 2, with 
charmers, those who have familiar spirits, and with 
wizards. But whatever license it may be supposed 
was permitted to the evil spirits of that period, — and 
although, undoubtedly, men owned the sway of dei- 
ties who were, in fact, but personifications of certain 
evil passions of humanity, as, for example, in their 
sacrifices to Venus, to Bacchus, to Mars, &c, and 
therefore, might be said, in one sense, to worship 
evil spirits — we cannot, in reason, suppose that every 
one, or the thousandth part of the innumerable idols 
worshipped among the heathen, was endowed with 
supernatural power ; it is clear that the greater num- 
ber fell under the description applied to them in 
another passage of Scripture, in which the part of 
the tree burned in the fire for domestic purposes is 
treated as of the same power and estimation, as that 
carved into an image, and preferred for Gentile 
homage. This striking passage, in which the impo- 
tence of the senseless block, and the brutish igno- 
rance of the worshipper, whose object of adoration 
is the work of his own hands, occurs in the 44th 
chapter of the prophecies of Isaiah, verse 10, et seq. 
The precise words of the text, as well as common 
sense, forbid us to believe that the images so con- 
structed by common artisans, became the habitation 
or resting-place of demons, or possessed any mani- 
festation of strength or power, whether through de- 
moniacal influence or otherwise. The whole system 
of doubt, delusion, and trick exhibited by the oracles, 
F2 



66 LETTERS ON 

savours of the mean juggling of impostors, rather 
than the audacious intervention of demons. What- 
ever degree of power the false gods of heathendom, 
or devils in their name, might be permitted occasion- 
ally to exert, was, unquestionably, under the general 
restraint arfd limitation of Providence ; and though, 
on the one hand, we cannot deny the possibility of 
such permission being granted, in cases unknown to 
us, it is certain, on the other, that the Scriptures 
mention no one specific instance of such influence, 
expressly recommended to our belief. 

Thirdly, as the backsliders among the Jews repeat- 
edly fell off to the worship of the idols of the neigh- 
bouring heathens, so they also resorted to the use of 
charms and enchantments, founded on a superstitious 
perversion of their own Levitical ritual, in which 
they endeavoured by sortilege, by Teraphim, by ob- 
servation of augury, or the flight of birds, which they 
called JVahas, by the means of Urim and Thummim, 
to find, as it were, a by-road to the secrets of futurity : 
But for the same reason that withholds us from de- 
livering any opinion upon the degree to which the 
Devil and his angels might be allowed to countenance 
the impositions of the heathen priesthood, it is im- 
possible for us conclusively to pronounce what effect 
might be permitted by supreme Providence, to the 
ministry of such evil spirits as presided over and, so 
far as they had liberty, directed these sinful inqui- 
ries among the Jews themselves. We are indeed 
assured from the sacred writings, that the promise 
of the Deity to his chosen people, if they conducted 
themselves agreeably to the law which he had given, 
was, that the communication with the invisible 
world would be enlarged, so that in the fulness of 
his time, he would pour out his spirit upon all flesh, 
when their sons and daughters should prophesy, their 
old men see visions, and their young men dream 
dreams. Such were the promises delivered to the 
Israelites by Joel, Ezekiel, and other holy seers, of 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 67 

which St. Peter, in the second chapter of the Acts 
of the Apostles, hails the fulfilment in the mission 
of our Saviour. And on the other hand, it is no less 
evident that the Almighty, to punish the disobedience 
of the Jews, abandoned them to their own fallacious 
desires, and suffered them to be deceived by the lying 
oracles, to which, in flagrant violation of his com- 
mands, they had recourse. Of this, the punishment 
arising from the Deity abandoning Ahab to his own 
devices, and suffering him to be deceived by a lying 
spirit, forms a striking instance. 

Fourthly, and on the other hand, abstaining with 
reverence from accounting ourselves judges of the 
actions of Omnipotence, we may safely conclude, 
that it was not his pleasure to employ in the execu- 
tion of his judgments, the consequences of any such 
species of league or compact between devils and de- 
luded mortals, as that denounced in the laws of our 
own ancestors under the name of witchcraft What 
has been translated by that word, seems little more 
than the art of a medicator of poisons, combined 
with that of a Pythoness or false prophetess ; a crime, 
however, of a capital nature, by the Levitical law, 
since, in the first capacity, it implied great enmity to 
mankind, and in the second, direct treason to the 
divine Legislator. The book of Tobit contains, in- 
deed, a passage resembling more an incident in an 
Arabian tale, or Gothic romance, than a part of in- 
spired writing. In this, the fumes produced by broil- 
ing the liver of a certain fish are described as having 
pow r er to drive away an evil genius who guards the 
nuptial chamber of an Assyrian princess, and who 
has strangled seven bridegrooms in succession, as 
they approached the nuptial couch. But the ro- 
mantic and fabulous strain of this legend has induced 
the fathers of all Protestant churches to deny it a 
place among the writings sanctioned by divine origin, 
and we may, therefore, be excused from entering 
into discussion on such imperfect evidence. 



68 LETTERS ON 

Lastly, in considering the incalculable change 
which took place upon the advent of our Saviour and 
the announcement of his law, we may observe, 
that according to many wise and learned men, his 
mere appearance upon earth, without awaiting the 
fulfilment of his mission, operated as an act of banish- 
ment of such heathen deities as had hitherto been 
suffered to deliver oracles, and ape in some degree 
the attributes of the Deity. Milton has, in the Para- 
dise Lost, it may be upon conviction of its truth, 
embraced the theory which indentifies the followers 
of Satan with the gods of the heathen; and, in a 
tone of poetry almost unequalled, even in his own 
splendid writings, he thus describes, in one of his 
earlier pieces, the departure of these pretended dei- 
ties on the eve of the blessed Nativity. 

" The oracles are dumb, 

No voice or hideous hum 
Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving; 

Apollo from his shrine 

Can no more divine, 
With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving; 
No nightly trance or breathed spell 
Inspires the pale-eyed priest from the prophetic cell. 

" The lonely mountains o'er, 

And the resounding shore, 
A voice of weeping heard and loud lament ; 

From haunted spring and dale, 

Edged with poplar pale, 
The parting Genius is with sighing sent; 
With flower-inwoven tresses torn, 
The Nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn. 

"In consecrated earth, 
And on the holy hearth, 
The Lars and Lemures moan with midnight plaint; 
In urns and altars round, 
A drear and dying sound 
Affrights the Flamens at their service quaint ; 
And the chill marble seems to sweat, 
While each peculiar Power foregoes his wonted seat. 

"Peor and Baalim 

Forsake their temples dim, 
With that twice-batter'd god of Palestine ; 

And mooned Ashtaroth, 

Heaven's queen and mother both, 
Now sits not girt with tapers' holy shine ; 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 69 

The Lybic Hammon shrinks his horn ; 

In vain the Tyrian maids their wounded Thamuz mourn. 

11 And sullen Moloch, fled, 

Hath left in shadows dread 
His burning idol all of darkest hue ; 

In vain with cymbals' ring, 

They call the grisly king, 
In dismal dance about the furnace blue ; 
The brutish gods of Nile as fast, 
Isis and Orus, and the Dog Anubis, haste." 



The quotation is a long one, but it is scarcely pos- 
sible to shorten what is so beautiful and interesting 
a description of the heathen deities, whether in the 
classic personifications of Greece, the horrible shapes 
worshipped by mere barbarians, or the hieroglyphical 
enormities of the Egyptian mythology. The idea 
of identifying the pagan deities, especially the most 
distinguished of them, with the manifestation of 
demoniac power, and concluding that the descent of 
our Saviour struck them with silence, so nobly ex- 
pressed in the poetry of Milton, is not certainly to be 
lightly rejected. It has been asserted, in simple 
prose, by authorities of no mean weight : nor does 
there appear any thing inconsistent in the faith of 
those who, believing that, in the elder time, fiends 
and demons were permitted an enlarged degree of 
power in uttering predictions, may also give credit to 
the proposition, that at the Divine advent that power 
was restrained, the oracles silenced, and those de- 
mons who had aped the Divinity of the place were 
driven from their abode on earth, honoured as it was 
by a guest so awful. 

It must be noticed, however, that this great event 
had not the same effect on that peculiar class of fiends 
who were permitted to vex mortals by the alienation 
of their minds, and the abuse of their persons, in 
the cases of what is called demoniacal possession. 
In what exact sense we should understand this word 
possession, it is impossible to discover : but we feel it 



70 LETTERS ON 

impossible to doubt (notwithstanding learned authori- 
ties to the contrary), that it was a dreadful disorder, 
of a kind not merely natural; and may be pretty 
well assured that it was suffered to continue after 
the incarnation, because the miracles effected by our 
Saviour and his apostles, in curing those tormented 
in this way, afforded the most direct proofs of his 
divine mission, even out of the very mouths of those 
ejected fiends, the most malignant enemies of a power 
to which they dared not refuse homage and obe- 
dience. And here is an additional proof, that witch- 
craft, in its ordinary and popular sense, was unknown 
at that period : although cases of possession are re- 
peatedly mentioned in the Gospels and Acts of the 
Apostles, yet in no one instance do the devils ejected 
mention a witch or sorcerer, or plead the commands 
of such a person, as the cause of occupying or tor- 
menting the victim; — whereas, in a great proportion 
of those melancholy cases of witchcraft with which 
the records of later times abound, the stress of the 
evidence is rested on the declaration of the possessed, 
or the demon within him, that some old man or wo- 
man in the neighbourhood had compelled the fiend 
to be the instrument of evil. 

It must also be admitted, that in another most 
remarkable respect, the power of the Enemy of man- 
kind was rather enlarged than bridled or restrained, 
in consequence of the Saviour coming upon earth. It 
is indisputable, that in order that Jesus might have his 
share in every species of delusion and persecution 
which the fallen race of Adam is heir to, he personally 
suffered the temptation in the wilderness at the hand 
of Satan, whom, without resorting to his divine power, 
he drove, confuted, silenced, and shamed, from his 
presence. But it appears, that although Satan was 
allowed upon this memorable occasion to come on 
earth with great power, the permission was given 
expressly because his time was short. 



DEMQNOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 71 

The indulgence which was then granted to him in 
a case so unique and peculiar soon passed over, and 
was utterly restrained. It is evident, that after the 
lapse of the period during which it pleased the 
Almighty to establish his own Church by miraculous 
displays of power, it could not consist with his kind- 
ness and wisdom, to leave the enemy in the posses- 
sion of the privilege of deluding men by imaginary 
miracles calculated for the perversion of that faith, 
which real miracles were no longer present to sup- 
port. There would, we presume to say, be a shocking 
inconsistency in supposing, that false and deceitful 
prophecies and portents should be freely circulated 
by any demoniacal influence, deceiving men's bodily 
organs, abusing their minds, and perverting their faith, 
while the true religion was left by its great Author 
devoid of every supernatural sign and token, which, 
in the time of its Founder and his immediate disci- 
ples, attested and celebrated their inappreciable 
mission. Such a permission on the part of the 
Supreme Being, would be (to speak under the deepest 
reverence) an abandonment of his chosen people, 
ransomed at such a price, to the snares of an enemy, 
from whom the worst evils were to be apprehended. 
Nor would it consist with the remarkable promise in 
Holy Writ, that " God will not suffer his people to be 
tempted above what they are able to bear." 1 Cor. x. 13. 
The Fathers of the Faith are not strictly agreed at 
what period the miraculous power was withdrawn 
from the Church ; but few Protestants are disposed 
to bring it down beneath the accession of Constantine, 
when the Christian religion was fully established in 
supremacy. The Roman Catholics, indeed, boldly 
affirm, that the power of miraculous interference with 
the course of nature is still in being ; but the enlight- 
ened even of this faith, though they dare not deny a 
fundamental tenet of their Church, will hardly assent 
to any particular case, without nearly the same evi- 
dence which might conquer the incredulity of their 



72 LETTERS ON 

neighbours the Protestants. It is alike inconsistent 
with the common sense of either, that fiends should 
be permitted to work marvels which are no longer 
exhibited on the part of Heaven, or in behalf of 
religion. 

It will be observed that we have not been anxious 
to decide upon the limits of probability on this ques- 
tion. It is not necessary for us to ascertain in what 
degree the power of Satan was at liberty to display 
itself during the Jewish dispensation, or down to 
what precise period in the history of the Christian 
Church cures of demoniacal possession, or similar 
displays of miraculous power, may have occurred. 
We have avoided controversy on that head, because 
it comprehends questions not more doubtful than 
unedifying. Little benefit could arise from attaining 
the exact knowledge of the maimer in which the 
apostate Jews practised unlawful charms or auguries. 
After their conquest and dispersion, they were re- 
marked among the Romans for such superstitious 
practices ; and the like, for what we know, may con- 
tinue to linger about the benighted wanderers of 
their race at the present day. But all these things 
are extraneous to our inquiry, the purpose of which 
was to discover whether any real evidence could be 
derived from sacred history, to prove the early exist- 
ence of that branch of demonology which has been 
the object, in comparatively modern times, of crimi- 
nal prosecution and capital punishment. We have 
already alluded to this as the contract of witchcraft, 
in which, as the term was understood in the middle 
ages, the demon and the witch or wizard combined 
their various powers of doing hann to inflict calami- 
ties upon the person and property, the fortune and 
the fame of innocent human beings ; imposing the 
most horrible diseases, and death itself, as marks of 
their slightest ill-will ; transforming their own per- 
sons and those of others at their pleasure ; raising 
tempests to ravage the crops of their enemies, or 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 73 

carrying them home to their own garners ; annihi- 
lating or transferring to their own dairies the produce 
of herds ; spreading pestilence among cattle, infecting 
and blighting children ; and, in a word, doing more 
evil than the heart of man might be supposed capable 
of conceiving, by means far beyond mere human 
power to accomplish. If it could be supposed that 
such unnatural leagues existed, and that there were 
wretches wicked enough, merely for the gratification 
of malignant spite or the enjoyment of some beastly 
revelry, to become the wretched slaves of infernal 
spirits, most just and equitable would be those laws 
which cut them off from the midst of every Christian 
commonwealth. But it is still more just and equita- 
ble, before punishment be inflicted for any crime, to 
prove that there is a possibility of that crime being 
committed. We have, therefore, advanced an impor- 
tant step in our inquiry, when we have ascertained 
that the witch of the Old Testament was not capable 
of any thing beyond the administration of baleful 
drugs, or the practising of paltry imposture, in other 
words, that she did not hold the character ascribed 
to a modern sorceress. We have thus removed out 
of the argument the startling objection, that, in deny- 
ing the existence of witchcraft, we deny the possi- 
bility of a crime which was declared capital in the 
Mosaic law ; and are left at full liberty to adopt the 
opinion, that the more modern system of witchcraft 
was a part, and by no means the least gross, of that 
mass of errors which appeared among the members 
of the Christian Church, when their religion, becom- 
ing gradually corrupted by the devices of men, and 
the barbarism of those nations among whom it was 
spread, showed a light, indeed, but one deeply tinged 
with the remains of that very pagan ignorance which 
its divine Founder came to dispel. 

We will, in a future part of this inquiry, endea- 
vour to show that many of the particular articles of 
the popular belief respecting magic and witchcraft 
G 



74 LETTERS ON 

were derived from the opinions which the aneienfc 
heathens entertained as part of their religion. To 
recommend them, however, they had principles 
lying deep in the human mind and heart of all times ; 
the tendency to belief in supernatural agencies is 
natural, and indeed seems connected with, and 
deduced from, the invaluable conviction of the cer- 
tainty of a future state. Moreover, it is very possible 
that particular stories of this class may have seemed 
undeniable in the dark ages, though our better 
instructed period can explain them in a satisfactory 
manner, by the excited temperament of spectators, 
or the influence of delusions produced by derange- 
ment of the intellect, or imperfect reports of the 
external senses. They obtained, however, universal 
faith and credit ; and the churchmen, either from 
craft or from ignorance, favoured the progress of a 
belief which certainly contributed, in a most power- 
ful manner, to extend their own authority over the 
human mind. 

To pass from the pagans of antiquity — the Mahom- 
medans, though their profession of faith is exclu- 
sively Unitarian, were accounted worshippers of evil 
spirits, who were supposed to aid them in their con- 
tinual warfare against the Christians, or to protect 
and defend them in the Holy Land, where their abode 
gave so much scandal and offence to the devout. 
Romance, and even history, combined in represent- 
ing all who were out of the pale of the Church as the 
personal vassals of Satan, who played his decep- 
tions openly among them ; and Mahound, Terma- 
gaunt, and Apollo were, in the opinion of the West- 
ern Crusaders, only so many names of the arch- 
fiend and his principal angels. The most enormous 
fictions, spread abroad and believed through Chris- 
tendom, attested the fact, that there were open dis- 
plays of supernatural aid afforded by the evil spirits 
to the Turks and Saracens; and fictitious reports 
were not less liberal in assigning to the Christians 
extraordinary means of defence through the direct 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 



75 



protection of blessed saints and angels, or of holy 
men, yet in the flesh, but already anticipating the 
privileges proper to a state of beatitude and glory, 
and possessing the power to work miracles. 

To show the extreme grossness of these legends, 
we may give an example from the romance of 
Richard Cceur de Lion, premising, at the same time, 
that, like other romances, it was written in what the 
author designed to be the style of true history, and 
was addressed to hearers and readers, not as a tale 
of fiction, but a real narrative of facts, so that the 
legend is a proof of what the age esteemed credible, 
and were disposed to believe, as much as if it had been 
extracted from a graver chronicle. 

The renowned Saladin, it is said, had despatched 
an embassy to King Richard, with the present of a 
colt, recommended as a gallant war-horse, challenging 
Cceur de Lion to meet him in single combat between 
the armies, for the purpose of deciding at once their 
pretensions to the land of Palestine, and the theolo- 
gical question, whether the God of the Christians, 
or Jupiter, the deity of the Saracens, should be the 
future object of adoration by the subjects of both 
monarchs. Now, under this seemingly chivalrous 
defiance was concealed a most unknightly stratagem, 
and which we may, at the same time, call a very 
clumsy trick for the Devil to be concerned in. A 
Saracen clerk had conjured two devils into a mare 
and her colt, with the instruction, that whenever the 
mare neighed, the foal, which was a brute of uncom- 
mon size, should kneel down to suck his dam. The 
enchanted foal was sent to King Richard, in the be- 
lief that, the foal obeying the signal of its dam as 
usual, the Soldan, who mounted the mare, might get 
an easy advantage over him. 

But the English king was warned by an angel in a 
dream of the intended stratagem, and the colt was, 
by the celestial mandate, previously to the combat, 
conjured in the holy name, to be obedient to his rider 



78 LETTERS ON 

during the encounter. The fiend-horse intimated his 
submission by drooping his head, but his word was 
not entirely credited. His ears were stopped with 
wax. In this condition, Richard, armed at all points, 
and with various marks of his religious faith displayed 
on his weapons, rode forth to meet Saladin, and the 
Soldan, confident of his stratagem, encountered him 
boldly. The mare neighed till she shook the ground 
for miles around. But the sucking devil, whom the 
wax prevented from hearing the summons, could not 
obey the signal. Saladin was dismounted, and nar 
rowiy escaped death, while his army were cut to 
pieces by the Christians. It is but an awkward tale 
of wonder, where a demon is worsted by a trick which 
could hardly have cheated a common horse-jockey ; 
but by such legends our ancestors were amused and 
interested, till their belief respecting the demons of 
the Holy Land seems to have been not very far different 
from that expressed in the title of Ben Jonson's play, 
" The Devil is an Ass." 

One of the earliest maps ever published, which ap- 
peared at Rome in the 16th century, intimates a simi- 
lar belief in the connexion of the heathen nations of 
the north of Europe with the demons of the spiritual 
world. In Esthonia, Lithuania, Courland, and sue' 
districts, the chart, for want, it may be supposed, of 
an accurate account of the country, exhibits rude 
cuts of the fur-clad natives paying homage at the 
shrines of demons, who make themselves visibly pre- 
sent to them ; while at other places they are dis- 
played as doing battle with the Teutonic knights, or 
other military associations formed for the conversion 
or expulsion of the heathens in these parts. Amid 
the pagans, armed with scimitars, and dressed in caf- 
tans, the fiends are painted as assisting them, por- 
trayed in all the modern horrors of the cloven-foot, 
or, as the Germans term it, horse's-foot, bat-wings, 
saucer-eyes, locks like serpents, and tail like a dra- 
gon. These attributes, it may be cursorily noticed* 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 77 

themselves intimate the connexion of modern demon- 
ology with the mythology of the ancients. The 
cloven foot is the attribute of Pan, to whose talents 
for inspiring terror we owe the word panic — the snaky 
tresses are borrowed from the shield of Minerva, and 
the dragon train alone seems to be connected with 
the Scriptural history.* 

Other heathen nations, whose creeds could not have 
directly contributed to the system of demonology, 
because their manners and even their very existence 
was unknown when it was adopted, were nevertheless 
involved, so soon as Europeans became acquainted 
with them, in the same charge of witchcraft and 
worship of demons, brought by the Christians of the 
middle ages against the heathens of Northern Europe 
and the Mahommedans of the East. We learn from 
the information of a Portuguese voyager, that even 
the native Christians (called those of St. Thomas), 
whom the discoverers found in India when they first 
arrived there, fell under suspicion of diabolical prac- 
tices. It was almost in vain that the priests of one 
of their chapels produced to the Portuguese officers 
and soldiers a holy image, and called on them, as good 
Christians, to adore the blessed Virgin. The sculp- 
tor had been so little acquainted with his art, and the 
hideous form which he had produced resembled an 
inhabitant of the infernal regions so much more than 
Our Lady of Grace, that one of the European offi- 
cers, while, like his companions, he dropped on his 
knees, added the loud protest, that if the image re- 
presented the Devil, he paid his homage to the Holy 
Virgin. 

In South America the Spaniards justified the unre- 
lenting cruelties exercised on the unhappy natives, 
by reiterating in all their accounts of the countries 

* The chart alluded to is one of the facsimiles of an ancient plani- 
sphere, engraved in bronze, about the end of the 15th century, and called 
the Borgian Table, from its possessor, Cardinal Stephen Borgia, and 
preserved in his Museum at Veletri. 
G2 



78 LETTERS ON 

which they discovered and conquered, that the 
Indians, in their idol-worship, were favoured by the 
demons with a direct intercourse, and that their 
priests inculcated doctrines and rites the foulest and 
most abhorrent to Christian ears. The great Snake- 
god of Mexico and other idols, worshipped with hu- 
man sacrifices, and bathed in the gore of their pri- 
soners, gave but too much probability to this accu- 
sation ; and if the images themselves were not ac- 
tually tenanted by evil spirits, the worship which the 
Mexicans paid to them was founded upon such deadly 
| cruelty and dark superstition, as might easily be be- 
* lieved to have been breathed into mortals by the 
agency of hell. 

Even in North America, the first settlers in New- 
England, and other parts of that immense continent, 
uniformly agreed that they detected, among the inha- 
bitants, traces of an intimate connexion with Satan. 
It is scarce necessary to remark, that this opinion was 
founded exclusively upon the tricks practised by the 
native powahs, or cunning men, to raise themselves 
to influence among the chiefs, and to obtain esteem 
with the people, which, possessed as they were pro- 
fessionally of some skill in jugglery, and the know- 
ledge of some medical herbs and secrets, the under- 
standing of the colonists was unable to trace to their 
real source — legerdemain and imposture. By the 
account, however, of the Reverend Cotton Mather, 
in his Magnalia, book vi.,* he does not ascribe to these 
Indian conjurers any skill greatly superior to a maker 
of almanacs, or common fortune-teller. " They," 
says the Doctor, "universally acknowledged and 
worshipped many gods, and therefore highly 
esteemed and reverenced their priests, powahs, or 
wizards, who were esteemed as having immediate 
converse with the gods. To them, therefore, they 
addressed themselves in all difficult cases ; yet could 

* On Remarkable Mercies of Divine Providence. 



PEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 79 

not all that desired that dignity, as they esteemed it, 
obtain familiarity with the infernal spirits. Nor 
w T ere all powahs alike successful in their addresses ; 
but they became such, either by immediate revelation, 
or in the use of certain rites and ceremonies, which 
tradition had left as conducing to that end. Inso- 
much, that parents, out of zeal, often dedicated their 
children to the gods, and educated them accordingly, 
observing a certain diet, debarring sleep, &c. : yet 
of the many designed, but few obtained their desire. 
Supposing that where the practice of witchcraft has 
been highly esteemed, there must be given the 
plainest demonstration of mortals having familiarity 
with infernal spirits, I am willing to let my reader 
know, that, not many years since, there died one of the 
powahs, who never pretended to astrological know- 
ledge, yet could precisely inform such who desired 
his assistance, from whence goods stolen from them 
were gone, and whither carried, with many things 
of the like nature ; nor was he ever known to endea- 
vour to conceal his knowledge to be immediately/rom 
a god subservient to him that the English worship. This 
powah being, by an Englishman worthy of credit (who 
lately informed me of the same), desired to advise 
him who had taken certain goods which had been 
stolen, having formerly been an eye-witness of his 
ability, the powah, after a little pausing, demanded 
why he requested that from him, since himself served 
another God ? that therefore he could not help him ; 
but added, ' If you can believe that my god may help 
you, I will try what I can do ;' which diverted the 
man from farther inquiry. I must' a little digress, 
and tell my reader, that this powah's wife was ac- 
counted a godly woman, and lived in the practice 
and profession of the Christian religion, not only by 
the approbation but encouragement of her husband. 
She constantly prayed in the family, and attended the 

Eublic worship on the Lord's days. He declared that 
e could not blame her, for that she served a god that 



80 LETTERS ON 

was above his ; but that, as to himself, his god's con- 
tinued kindness obliged him not to forsake his ser- 
vice." It appears, from the above and similar pas- 
sages, that Dr. Cotton Mather, an honest and devout 
but sufficiently credulous man, had mistaken the pur- 
pose of the tolerant powah. The latter only desired 
to elude the necessity of his practices being brought 
under the observant eye of an European, while he 
found an ingenious apology in the admitted supe- 
riority which he naturally conceded to the Deity of a 
people, advanced, as he might well conceive, so far 
above his own in power and attainments, as might 
reasonably infer a corresponding superiority in the 
nature and objects of their worship. 

From another narrative, we are entitled to infer 
that the European wizard was held superior to the 
native sorcerer of North America. Among the num- 
berless extravagances of the Scottish Dissenters of 
the 17th century, now canonized in a lump by those 
who view them in the general light of enemies to 
prelacy, was a certain ship-master, called, from his 
size, Meikle John Gibb. This man, a person called 
Jamie, and one or two other men, besides twenty or 
thirty females who adhered to them, went the wildest 
lengths of enthusiasm. Gibb headed a party, who 
followed him into the moorlands, and at the Ford 
Moss, between Airth and Stirling, burned their Bibles, 
as an act of solemn adherence to their new faith. 
They were apprehended in consequence, and com- 
mitted to prison; and the rest of the Dissenters, 
however differently they were affected by the perse- 
cution of government, when it applied to themselves, 
were nevertheless much offended that these poor mad 
people were not brought to capital punishment for 
their blasphemous extravagances ; and imputed it as a 
fresh crime to the Duke of York, that, though he could 
not be often accused of toleration, he considered the 
discipline of the house of correction as more likely 
to bring the unfortunate Gibbites to their senses, f than 



DEMONOLOGY and witchcraft. 81 

the more dignified severities of a public trial and the 
gallows. The Cameron ians, however, did their best 
to correct this scandalous lenity. As Meikle John 
Gibb, who was their comrade in captivity, used to dis- 
turb their worship in jail by his maniac howling, 
two of them took turn about to hold him down by 
force, and silence him by a napkin thrust into his 
mouth. This mode of quieting the unlucky heretic, 
though sufficiently emphatic, being deemed ineffec- 
tual or inconvenient, George Jackson, a Cameronian, 
who afterward suffered at the gallows, dashed the 
maniac with his feet and hands against the wall, and 
beat him so severely, that the rest were afraid that 
he had killed him outright. After which specimen 
of fraternal chastisement, the lunatic, to avoid the 
repetition of the discipline, whenever the prisoners 
began worship, ran behind the door, and there, 
with his own napkin crammed into his mouth, sat 
howling like a chastised cur. But on being finally 
transported to America, John Gibb, we are assured, 
was much admired by the heathen for his familiar 
converse with the Devil bodily, and offering sacrifices 
to him. " He died there," says Walker, " about the 
year 1720."* We must necessarily infer, that the 
pretensions of the natives to supernatural communi- 
cation could not be of a high class, since we find them 
honouring this poor madman as their superior : and, 
in general, that the magic, or powahing, of the North 
American Indians, was not of a nature to be much ap- 
prehended by the British colonists, since the natives 
themselves gave honour and precedence to those 
Europeans who came among them with the character 
of possessing intercourse with the spirits whom they 
themselves professed to worship. 

Notwithstanding this inferiority on the part of the 
powahs, it occurred to the settlers that the heathen 

* See Patrick Walker's Biographia Presbyteriana, vol. ii. p.'23 ; also 
God's Judgment upon Persecutors, and Wodrow's History, upon the 
article Joan Gibb. 



82 LETTERS ON 

Indians and Roman Catholic Frenchmen were par- 
ticularly favoured by the demons, who sometimes 
adopted their appearance, and showed themselves 
in their likeness, to the great annoyance of the colo- 
nists. Thus, in the year 1692, a party of real or 
imaginary French and Indians exhibited themselves 
occasionally to the colonists of the town of Glou- 
cester, in the county of Essex, New-England, 
alarmed the country around very greatly, skirmished 
repeatedly with the English, and caused the raising 
of two regiments, and the despatching a strong rein- 
forcement to the assistance of the settlement. But 
as these visitants, by whom they were plagued more 
than a fortnight, though they exchanged fire with the 
settlers, never killed or scalped any one, the English 
became convinced that they were not real Indians 
and Frenchmen, but that the Devil and his agents had 
assumed such an appearance, although seemingly 
not enabled effectually to support it, for the molesta- 
tion of the colony.* 

It appears, then, that the ideas of superstition which 
the more ignorant converts to the Christian faith 
borrowed from the wreck of the classic mythology, 
were so rooted in the minds of their successors, that 
these found corroboration of their faith in demonology 
in the practice of every pagan nation whose destiny 
it was to encounter them as enemies, and that as well 
within the limits of Europe, as in every other part of 
the globe to which their arms were carried. In a 
word, it may be safely laid down, that the commonly 
received doctrine of demonology, presenting the 
same general outlines, though varied according to the 
fancy of particular nations, existed through all Eu- 
rope. It seems to have been founded originally on 
feelings incident to the human heart, or diseases to 
which the human frame is liable, — to have been 
largely augmented by what classic superstitions sur- 

* Magnalia, book vii. article xviii. The fact is also alleged in the 
Life of Sir William Phipps. 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 83 

vived the ruins of paganism, — and to have received 
new contributions from the opinions collected among 
the barbarous nations, whether of the east or of the 
west. It is now necessary to enter more minutely into 
the question, and endeavour to trace from what espe- 
cial sources the people of the middle ages derived 
those notions, which gradually assumed the shape 
of a regular system of demonology. 



LETTER III. 

Creed of Zoroaster — Received partially into most Heathen Nations — In- 
stances among the Celtic Tribes of Scotland — Beltaine Feast— Gude- 
man's Croft—Such Abuses admitted into Christianity after the earlier 
Ages of the Church — Law of the Romans against Witchcraft — Roman 
Customs survive the Fall of their Religion — Instances— Demonology 
of the Northern Barbarians — Nieksas — Bhar-geist — Correspondence 
between the Northern and Roman Witches — The Power of Fascina- 
tion ascribed to the Sorceresses — Example from the Eyrbiggia Saga — 
The Prophetesses of the Germans — The Gods of Valhalla not highly 
regarded by their Worshippers — Often defied by their Champions — 
Demons of the North — Story of Assueit and Asmund — Action of Eject- 
ment against Spectres — Adventure of a Champion with the Goddess 
Freya — Conversion of the Pagans of Iceland to Christianity — North- 
ern Superstitions mixed with thoseof the Celts— Satyrs of the North- 
Highland Ourisk — Meming the Satyr. 

The creed of Zoroaster, which naturally occurs to 
unassisted reason as a mode of accounting for the 
mingled existence of good and evil in the visible 
world — that belief which, in one modification or 
another, supposes the coexistence of a benevolent 
and malevolent principle, winch contend together 
without either being able decisively to prevail over 
his antagonist, leads the fear and awe deeply im- 
pressed on the human mind to the worship as well 
of the author of evil, so tremendous in all the effects 
of which credulity accounts him the primary cause, 
as to that of his great opponent, who is loved and 
adored as the Father of all that is good and bounti- 



84 IETTERS ON 

ful. Nay, such is the timid servility of human na- 
ture, that the worshippers will neglect the altars of 
the Author of good, rather than that of Arimanes, 
trusting with indifference to the well-known mercy 
of the one, while they shrink from the idea of irri- 
tating the vengeful jealousy of the awful father of 
evil. 

The Celtic tribes, by whom, under various denomi- 
nations, Europe seems to have been originally peo- 
pled, possessed, in common with other savages, a 
natural tendency to the worship of the evil principle. 
They did not, perhaps, adore Arimanes, under one 
sole name, or consider the malignant divinities as 
sufficiently powerful to undertake a direct struggle 
with the more benevolent ^ods ; yet they thought it 
worth while to propitiate them by various expiatory 
rites and prayers, that they, and the elementary tem- 
pests, which they conceived to be under their direct 
command, might be merciful to suppliants who had 
acknowledged their power, and deprecated their ven- 
geance. 

Remains of these superstitions might be traced till 
past the middle of the last century, though fast be- 
coming obsolete, or passing into mere popular cus- 
toms of the country, which the peasantry observe, 
without thinking of their origin. About :769, when 
Mr. Pennant made his tour, the ceremony of the 
Baaltein, Beltane, or First of May, though varying 
in different districts of the Highlands, was yet in 
strict observance ; and the cake, which was then 
baken with scrupulous attention to certain rites and 
forms, was divided into fragments, which were for- 
mally dedicated to birds or beasts of prey, that they, 
or rather the being whose agents they were, might 
spare the flocks and herds.* 

Another custom of similar origin lingered late 

* See Pennant's Scottish Tour, vol. i. p. 111. The traveller mentions 
that some festival of the same kind was, in his time, observed in Glouces- 
tershire. 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 85 

among us. In many parishes of Scotland there was 
suffered to exist a certain portion of land, called the 
gudernatfs croft, which was never ploughed or culti- 
vated, but suffered to remain waste, like the Temenos 
of a pagan temple. Though it was not expressly 
avowed, no one doubted that the gudeman's croft was 
set apart for some evil being ; in fact, that it was the 
portion of the arch-fiend himself, wjiom our ances- 
tors distinguished by a name, which, while it was 
generally understood, could not, it was supposed, be 
offensive to the stern inhabitant of the regions of 
despair. This was so general a custom, that the 
Church published an ordinance against it as an im- 
pious and blasphemous usage. 

This singular custom sunk before the efforts of the 
clergy in the seventeenth century ; but there must 
still be many alive, who in childhood have been 
taught to look with wonder on knolls and patches of 
ground left uncultivated, because, whenever a plough- 
share entered the soil, the elementary spirits were 
supposed to testify their displeasure by storm and 
thunder. Within our own memory, many such 
places, sanctified to barrenness by some favourite 
popular superstition, existed, both in Wales and Ire- 
land, as well as in Scotland; but the high price of 
agricultural produce during the late war, renders it 
doubtful if a veneration for gray-bearded superstition 
has suffered any one of them to remain undesecrated. 
For the same reason, the mounts called Sith Bhru- 
aith were respected, and it was deemed unlawful and 
dangerous to cut wood, dig earth and stones, or 
otherwise disturb them.* 

Now, it may at first sight seem strange that the 
Christian .religion should have permitted the exist- 
ence of such gross and impious relics of heathenism, 
in a land where its doctrines had obtained universal 
credence. But this will not appear so wonderful, 

* See Essay on the Subterranean Commonwealth^ by Mr. Robert" 
Kirke, Minister of Aberfoyle. 

H 



86 LETTERS ON 

when it is recollected that the original Christians 
under the heathen emperors were called to conver- 
sion by the voice of apostles and saints, invested for 
the purpose with miraculous powers, as well of lan- 
guage, for communicating their doctrine to the Gen- 
tiles, as of cures, for the purpose of authenticating 
their mission. These converts must have been in 
general such elect persons as were effectually called 
to make part of the infant Church ; and when hypo- 
crites ventured, like Ananias and Sapphira, to in- 
trude themselves into so select an association, they 
were liable, at the Divine pleasure, to be detected 
and punished. On the contrary, the nations who 
were converted after Christianity had become the 
religion of the empire were not brought within the 
pale upon such a principle of selection, as when the 
Church consisted of a few individuals, who had, upon 
conviction, exchanged the errors of the pagan reli- 
gion for the dangers and duties incurred by those 
who embraced a faith inferring the self-denial of its 
votaries, and at the same time exposing them to perse- 
cution. When the Cross became triumphant, and its 
cause no longer required the direction of inspired 
men, or the evidence of miracles, to compel reluc- 
tant belief, it is evident that the converts who 
thronged into the fold must have, many of them, en- 
tered because Christianity was the prevailing faith — 
many because it was the church, the members of 
which rose most readily to promotion — many, finally, 
who, though content to resign the worship of pagan 
divinities, could not, at once, clear their minds of 
heathen ritual and heathen observances, which they 
inconsistently laboured to unite with the more sim- 
ple and majestic faith that disdained such impure 
union. If this was the case even in the Roman em- 
pire, where the converts to the Christian faith must 
have found, among the earlier members of the 
Church, the readiest and the soundest instruction, 
how much more imperfectly could those foreign and 



DEM0X0L0GY AXD WITCHCRAFT. 87 

barbarous tribes receive the necessary religious in- 
formation from some zealous and enthusiastic 
preacher, who christened them by hundreds in one 
day? Still less could we imagine them to have 
acquired a knowledge of Christianity, in the genuine 
and perfect sense of the word, when, as was fre- 
quently the case, they only assumed the profession 
of the religion that had become the choice of some 
favoured chief, wiiose example they followed in 
mere love and loyalty, without, perhaps, attaching 
more consequence to a change of religion than to a 
change of garments. Such hasty converts, profess- 
ing themselves Christians, but neither weaned from 
their old belief, nor instructed in their new one, en- 
tered the sanctuary without laying aside the super- 
stitions with which their young minds had been 
imbued ; and, accustomed to a plurality of deities, 
some of them, who bestowed unusual thought on the 
matter, might be of opinion, that, in adopting the 
God of the Christians, they had not renounced the 
service of every inferior power. 

If, indeed, the laws of the empire could have been 
supposed to have had any influence over those fierce 
barbarians, who conceived that the empire itself lay 
before them as a spoil, they might have been told 
that Constantine, taking the offence of alleged magi- 
cians and sorcerers in the same light in which it was 
viewed in the law of Moses, had denounced death 
against any one who used these unlawful inquiries 
into futurity. " Let the unlawful curiosity of prying 
into futurity," says the law, "be silent in every 
one henceforth and for ever.* For, subjected to the 
avenging sword of the law, he shall be punished 
capitally who disobeys our commands in this matter." 

If, however, we look more closely into this enact- 
ment, we shall be led to conclude that the civil law 
does not found upon the prohibitions and penalties 

* Codex, lib. ix. tit. 18, cap. 1. 2, 3. 5. 6. 7, 8. 



88 LETTERS ON 

in Scripture ; although it condemns the ars mathe- 
matica (for the most mystic and uncertain of all 
sciences, real or pretended, at that time held the 
title which now distinguishes the most exact) as a 
damnable art, and utterly interdicted, and declares 
that the practitioners therein should die by fire, as 
enemies of the human race — yet, the reason of this 
severe treatment seems to be different from that 
acted upon in the Mosaical institutions. The weight 
of the crime among the Jews was placed on the 
blasphemy of the diviners, and their treason against 
the theocracy instituted by Jehovah. The Roman 
legislators were, on the other hand, moved chiefly 
by the danger arising to the person of the prince 
and the quiet of the state, so apt to be unsettled by 
every pretence or encouragement to innovation. 
The reigning emperors, therefore, were desirous to 
place a check upon the mathematics (as they termed 
the art of divination), much more for a political than 
a religious cause, since we observe, in the history of 
the empire, how often the dethronement or death of 
the sovereign was produced by conspiracies or mu- 
tinies which took their rise from pretended pro- 
phecies. In this mode of viewing the crime, the 
lawyers of the lower empire acted upon the example 
of those who had compiled the laws of the twelve 
tables.* The mistaken and misplaced devotion 
which Horace recommends to the rural nymph, 
Phidyle, would have been a crime of a deep dye in 

* By this more ancient code, the punishment of death was indeed 
denounced against those who destroyed crops, awakened storms, or 
brought over to their barns and garners the fruits of the earth ; but, by 
good fortune, it left the agriculturists of the period at liberty to use the 
means they thought most proper to render their fields fertile and plenti- 
ful. Pliny informs us, that one Caius Furius Cresinus, a Roman of 
mean estate, raised larger crops from a small field, than his neighbours 
could obtain from more ample possessions. He was brought before the 
judge, upon a charge, averring that he conjured the fruits of the earth, 
produced by his neighbours' farms, into his own possession. Cresinus 
appeared, and, having proved the return of his farm to be the produce 
of his own hard and unremitting labour, as well as superior skill, was 
dismissed with the highest honours. 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 89 

a Christian convert, and must have subjected him to 
excommunication, as one relapsed to the rites of 
paganism ; but he might indulge his superstition, by 
supposing, that though he must not worship Pan or 
Ceres, as gods, he was at liberty to fear them in their 
new capacity of fiends. Some compromise between 
the fear and the conscience of the new converts, at 
a time when the Church no longer consisted exclu- 
sively of saints, martyrs, and confessors, the disci- 
ples of inspired Apostles, led them, and even their 
priestly guides, subject like themselves to human 
passions and errors, to resort as a charm, if not as 
an act of worship, to those sacrifices, words, and 
ritual, by which the heathen, whom they had suc- 
ceeded, pretended to arrest evil, or procure benefits. 

When such belief in a hostile principle and its 
imaginations was become general in the Roman 
empire, the ignorance of its conquerors, those wild 
nations, Franks, Goths, Vandals, Huns, and similar 
classes of unrefined humanity, made them prone to 
an error which there were few judicious preachers 
to warn them against ; and we ought rather to won- 
der and admire the Divine clemency, which imparted 
to so rude nations the light of the Gospel, and dis- 
posed them to receive a religion so repugnant to 
their warlike habits, than that they should, at the 
same time, have adopted many gross superstitions, 
borrowed from the pagans, or retained numbers of 
those which had made part of their own national 
forms of heathenism. 

Thus, though the thrones of Jupiter, and the supe- 
rior deities of the heathen Pantheon, were totally 
overthrown and broken to pieces, fragments of their 
worship, and many of their rites, survived the con- 
version to Christianity, — nay, are in existence even 
at this late and enlightened period, although those 
by whom they are practised have not preserved the 
least memory of their original purpose. We may 
hastily mention one or two customs of classical 
H2 



90 LETTERS ON 

origin, in addition to the Beltane and those already 
noticed, which remain as examples that the manners 
of the Romans once gave the tone to the greater 
part of the island of Britain, and at least to the whole 
which was to the south of the wall of Severus. 

The following customs still linger in the south of 
Scotland, and belong to this class : The bride, when 
she enters the house of her husband, is lifted over 
the threshold, and to step on it, or over it, volun- 
tarily, is reckoned a bad omen. This custom was 
universal in Rome, where it was observed as keep- 
ing in memory the rape of the Sabines, and that it 
was by a show of violence towards the females, that 
the object of peopling the city was attained. On the 
same occasion, a sweet cake, baked for the purpose, 
is broken above the head of the bride ; which is also 
a rite of classic antiquity. 

In like maimer, the Scottish, even of the better 
rank, avoid contracting marriage in the month of 
May, which genial season of flowers and breezes 
might, in other respects, appear so peculiarly fa- 
vourable for that purpose. It was specially objected 
to the marriage of Mary with the profligate Earl of 
Bothwell, that the union was formed within this in- 
terdicted month. This prejudice was so rooted 
among the Scots, that, in 1684, a set of enthusiasts, 
called Gibbites, proposed to renounce it, among a 
long list of stated festivals, fast days, popish relics, 
not forgetting the profane names of the days of the 
week, names of the months, and all sorts of idle and 
silly practices winch their tender consciences took 
an exception to. This objection to solemnize mar- 
riage in the merry month of May, however fit a sea- 
son for courtship, is also borrowed from the Roman 
pagans, which, had these fanatics been aware of it, 
would have been an additional reason for their ana- 
thema against the practice. The ancients have given 
us as a maxim, that it is only bad women who marry 
in, that month.* 

* Mais nubent Maia. 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 91 

The custom of saying, God bless you, when a 
person in company sneezes, is, in like manner, de- 
rived from sternutation being considered as a crisis 
of the plague at Athens, and the hope that, when it 
was attained, the patient had a chance of recovery. 

But, besides these, and many other customs which 
the various nations of Europe receive from the 
classical times, and which it is not our object to in- 
vestigate, they derived from thence a shoal of super- 
stitious beliefs, which, blended and mingled with 
those which they brought with them out of their own 
country, fostered and formed the materials of a 
demonological creed, which has descended down 
almost to our own times. Nixas, or Nicksa, a river 
or ocean god, worshipped on the shores of the 
Baltic, seems to have taken uncontested possession 
of the attributes of Neptune. Amid the twilight 
winters and overpowering tempests of these gloomy 
regions, he had been not unnaturally chosen as the 
power most adverse to man, and the supernatural 
character with which he was invested has descended 
to our time under two different aspects. The Nixa 
of the Germans is one of those fascinating and lovely 
fays whom the ancients termed Naiads ; and, unless 
her pride is insulted, or her jealousy awakened, by 
an inconstant lover, her temper is generally mild, 
and her actions beneficent. The Old Nick, known 
in England, is an equally genuine descendant of the 
northern sea god, and possesses a larger portion of 
h s powers and terrors. The British sailor, who 
fears nothing else, confesses his terrors for this ter- 
rible being, and believes him the author of almost 
all the various calamities to which the precarious life 
of a seaman is so continually exposed. 

The Bhar-guest, or Bhar-geist, by which name it 
is generally acknowledged through various country 
parts of England, and particularly in Yorkshire, also 
called a Dobie — a local spectre which haunts a par- 
ticular spot under various forms — is a deity, as his 



92 LETTERS ON 

name implies, of Teutonic descent ; and if it be true, 
as the author has been informed, that some families 
bearing the name of Dobie carry a phantom, or 
spectre passant, in their armorial bearings,* it plainly 
implies, that, however the word may have been 
selected for a proper name, its original derivation had 
not then been forgotten. 

The classic mythology presented numerous points 
in which it readily coalesced with that of the Ger- 
mans, Danes, and Northmen of a later period. They 
recognised the power of Erictho, Canidia, and other 
sorceresses, whose spells could perplex the course of 
the elements, intercept the influence of the sun, and 
prevent his beneficial operation upon the fruits of the 
earth ; call down the moon from her appointed sphere, 
and disturb the original and destined course of nature 
by their words and charms, and the power of the evil 
spirits whom they evoked. They were also profes- 
sionally implicated in all such mystic and secret rites 
and ceremonies as were used to conciliate the favour 
of the infernal powers, whose dispositions were sup- 
posed as dark and wayward, as their realms were 
gloomy and dismal. Such hags were frequent agents 
in the violation of unburied bodies, and it was be- 
lieved, by the vulgar at least, that it was dangerous 
to leave corpses unguarded, lest they should be 
mangled by the witches, who took from them the 
most choice ingredients composing their charms. 
Above all, it must not be forgotten that these fright- 
ful sorceresses possessed the power of transforming 
themselves and others into animals, which are used 
in their degree of quadrupeds, or in whatever other 
laborious occupation belongs to the transformed 
state. The poets of the heathens, with authors of 

* A similar bearing lias been ascribed, for the same reason, to those of 
thenameofFantome, who carried of old a goblin, or phantom, in a shroud 
sable passant, on a field azure. Both bearings are founded on what 
is called canting heraldry, a species of art disowned by the writers on 
the science, yet universally made use of by those who practise the art 
of blazonry. • 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 93 

fiction, such as Lucian and Apuleius, ascribe all these 
powers to the witches of the pagan world, combining 
them with the art of poisoning, and of making magical 
filters, to seduce the affections of the young and 
beautiful ; and such were the characteristics which, 
. in greater or less extent, the people of the middle 
ages ascribed to the witches of their day. 

But in thus adopting the superstitions of the 
ancients, the conquerors of the Roman empire com- 
bined them with similar articles of belief, which they 
had brought with them from their original settlements 
in the North, where the existence of hags of the 
same character fonned a great feature in their Sagas 
and their Chronicles. It requires but a slight acquaint- 
ance with these compositions, to enable the reader 
to recognise in the Galdrakinna of the Scalds, the 
Stryga, or witch- woman of more classical climates. 
In the northern ideas of witches, there was no irre- 
ligion concerned with their lore ; on the contrary, the 
possession of magical knowledge was an especial 
attribute of Odin himself ; and to intrude themselves 
upon a Deity, and compel him to instruct them in 
what they desired to know, was accounted not an act 
of impiety, but of gallantry and high courage, among 
those sons of the sword and the spear. Their matrons 
possessed a high reputation for magic, for prophetic 
powers, for creating illusions ; and, if not capable of 
transformations of the human body, they were at 
least able to impose such fascination on the sight of 
their enemies, as to conceal for a period the objects 
of which they were in search. 

There is a remarkable story in the Eyrbiggia Saga 
(Historia Eyranorum), giving the result of such a 
controversy between two of these gifted women, one 
of whom was determined on discovering and putting 
to death the son of the other, named Katla, who in a 
brawl had cut oif the hand of the daughter-in-law 
of Gierada. A party detached to avenge this wrong, 
by putting Oddo to death, returned deceived by the 



94 LETTERS ON 

skill of his mother. They had found only Katla. 
they said, spinning flax from a large distaff. " Fools," 
said Geirada, " that distaff was the man you sought." 
They returned, seized the distaff, and burned it. But 
this second time, the witch disguised her son under 
the appearance of a tame kid. A third time he was 
a hog, which grovelled among the ashes. The party 
returned yet again ; augmented, as one of Katla's 
maidens, who kept watch, informed her mistress, by 
one in a blue mantle. " Alas !" said Katla, " it is 
the sorceress Geirada, against whom spells avail not." 
Accordingly, the hostile party, entering for the fourth 
time, seized on the object of their animosity, and put 
him to death.* This species of witchcraft is well 
known in Scotland as the glamour, or deceptio visus, 
and was supposed to be a special attribute of the race 
of Gipsies. 

Neither are those prophetesses to be forgotten, so 
much honoured among the German tribes, that, as 
We are assured by Tacitus, they rose to the highest 
rank in their councils, by their supposed supernatural 
knowledge, and even obtained a share in the direc- 
tion of their armies. This peculiarity in the habits 
of the North was so general, that it was no unusual 
thing to see females, from respect to their supposed 
views into futurity, and the degree of divine inspira- 
tion which was vouchsafed to them, arise to the de- 
gree of Haxa, or chief priestess, from which comes 
the word Hexe, now universally used for a witch ; a 
circumstance which plainly shows, that the mytho- 
logical system of the ancient natives of the North 
had given to the modern language an appropriate 
word for distinguishing those females who had inter- 
course with the spiritual world.f 



* Eyrbiggia Saga, in Northern Antiquities. 

T It may be worth while to notice, that the word Haxa is still used 
in Scotland in its sense of a druidess, or chief priestess, to distinguish 
the places where such females exercised their ritual. There is a species 
of small intrenchment on the western descent of the Eildon hills, which 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 95 

It is undeniable that these Pythonesses were held 
in high respect while the pagan religion lasted ; but 
for that very reason they became odious so soon as 
the tribe was converted to Christianity. They were, 
of course, if they pretended to retain their influence, 
either despised as impostors, or feared as sorceresses ; 
and the more that, in particular instances, they be- 
came dreaded for their power, the more they were 
detested, under the conviction that they derived it 
from the enemy of man. The deities of the northern 
heathens underwent a similar metamorphosis, re- 
sembling that proposed by Drawcansir in the Re- 
hearsal, who threatens "to make a god subscribe 
himself a devil." 

The warriors of the North received this new im- 
pression concerning the influence of their deities, 
and the source from which it was derived, with the 
more indifference, as their worship, when their my- 
thology was most generally established, was never 
of a very reverential or devotional character. Their 
ideas of their own merely human prowess was so 
high, that the champions made it their boast, as we 
have already hinted, they would not give way in fight 
even to the immortal gods themselves. Such, we 
learn from Caesar, was the idea of the Germans con- 
cerning the Suevi or Swabians, a tribe to w T hom the 
others yielded the palm of valour ; and many indi- 
vidual stories are told in the Sagas concerning bold 
champions, who had fought, not only with the sor- 
cerers, but with the demigods of the system, and 
come off unharmed, if not victorious, in the contest. 

Mr. Milne, in his account of the parish of Melrose, drawn up about 
eighty years ago, says was denominated Bourjo, a word of unknown 
derivation, by which the place is still known. Here a universal and 
subsisting tradition bore, that human sacrifices were of yore offered, 
while the people assisting could behold the ceremony from the elevation 
of the glacis, which slopes inward. With this place of sacrifice com- 
municated a path, still discernible, called the Haxellgate, leading to a 
small glen, or narrow valley, called the Haxellcleuch— both which 
words are probably derived from the Haxa, or chief priestess of the 
pagans. 



96 LETTERS ON 

Hother, for example, encountered the god Thor in 
battle, as Diomede, in the Iliad, engages with Mars, 
and with like success. Bartholine* gives us repeated 
examples of the same kind. "Know this," said 
Kiartan to Olaus Trigguasen, " that I believe neither 
in idols or demons. I have travelled through various 
strange countries, and have encountered many giants 
and monsters, and have never been conquered by 
them; I therefore put my sole trust in my own 
strength of body and courage of soul." Another yet 
more broad answer was made to St. Olaus, King of 
Norway, by Gaukater. "I am neither pagan nor 
Christian. My comrades and I profess no other re- 
ligion than a perfect confidence in our own strength 
and invincibility in battle." Such chieftains were 
of the sect of Mezentius — 

' : Dextra mihi Deus, et telum, quod missile libro, 
Nunc adsint!"t 

And we cannot wonder that champions of such a 
character, careless of their gods while yet acknow- 
ledged as such, readily regarded them as demons 
after their conversion to Christianity. 

To incur the highest extremity of danger became 
accounted a proof of that insuperable valour for which 
every Northman desired to be famed, and their 
annals afford numerous instances of encounters with 
ghosts, witches, furies, and fiends, whom the Kiempe, 
or champions, compelled to submit to their mere 
mortal strength, and yield to their service the 
weapons or other treasures which they guarded in 
their tombs. 

The Norsemen were the more prone to these su- 
perstitions, because it was a favourite fancy of theirs 
that, in many instances, the change from life to 
death altered the temper of the human spirit from 

* De caiis-is conteinpt.-R necis, lib- i. cap. 6. 
| /Eneid, lib. x. line 773. 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 97 

benignant to malevolent ; or perhaps, that when the 
soul left the body, its departure was occasionally 
supplied by a wicked demon, who took the opportu- 
nity to enter and occupy its late habitation. 

Upon such a supposition the wild fiction that fol- 
lows is probably grounded ; which, extravagant as 
it is, possesses something striking to the imagination. 
Saxo Grammaticus tells us of the fame of two Norse 
princes or chiefs, who had formed what was called a 
brotherhood in arms, implying not only the firmest 
friendship and constant support during all the adven- 
tures which they should undertake in life, but bind- 
ing them by a solemn compact, that after the death 
of either, the survivor should descend alive into the 
sepulchre of his brother-in-arms, and consent to be 
buried along with him. The task of fulfilling this 
dreadful compact fell upon Asmund, his companion, 
Assueit, having been slain in battle. The tomb was 
formed after the ancient northern custom in what 
was called the age of hills, — that is, when it was 
usual to bury persons of distinguished merit or rank 
on some conspicuous spot, which was crowned with 
a mound. With this purpose a deep narrow vault 
was constructed, to be the apartment of the future 
tomb over which the sepulchral heap was to be piled. 
Here they deposited arms, trophies, poured forth, 
perhaps, the blood of victims, introduced into the 
tomb the war-horses of the champions, and when 
these rites had been duly paid, the body of Assueit 
was placed in the dark and narrow house, while his 
faithful brother-in-arms entered and sat down by the 
corpse, without a word or look which testified regret 
or unwillingness to fulfil his fearful engagement. 
The soldiers who had witnessed this singular inter- 
ment of the dead and living, rolled a huge stone to 
the mouth of the tomb, and piled so much earth and 
stones above the spot as made a mound visible from 
a great distance, and then, with loud lamentation for 
the loss of such undaunted leaders, they dispersed 
I 



( 



98 LETTERS ON 

themselves like a flock which has lost its shep- 
herd. 

Years passed away after years, and a century had 
elapsed, ere a noble Swedish rover, bound upon some 
high adventure, and supported by a gallant band of 
followers, arrived in the valley which took its name 
from the tomb of the brethren-in-arms. The story 
was told to the strangers, whose leader determined 
on opening the sepulchre, partly because, as already 
hinted, it was reckoned a heroic action to brave the 
anger of departed heroes by violating their tombs ; 
partly to attain the arms and swords of proof with 
which the deceased had done their great actions. He 
set his soldiers to work, and soon removed the earth 
and stones from one side of the mound, and laid bare 
the entrance. But the stoutest of the rovers started 
back, when, instead of the silence of a tomb, they 
heard within horrid cries, the clash of swords, the 
clang of armour, and all the noise of a mortal com- 
bat between two furious champions. A young war- 
rior was let down into the profound tomb by a cord, 
which was drawn up shortly after, in hopes of news 
from beneath. But when the adventurer descended, 
some one threw him from the cord, and took his 
place in the noose. When the rope was pulled up, 
the soldiers, instead of their companion, beheld As- 
mund, the survivor of the brethren-in-arms. He 
rushed into the open air, his sword drawn in his hand, 
his armour half torn from his body, the left side of 
his face almost scratched off, as by the talons of 
some wild beast. He had no sooner appeared in the 
light of day, than, with the improvisatory poetic 
talent which these champions often united with heroic 
strength and bravery, he poured forth a string of 
verses containing the history of Iris hundred years' 
conflict within the tomb. It seems that no sooner 
was the sepulchre closed than the corpse of the slain 
Assueit arose from the ground, inspired by some ra- 
venous goule, and having first torn to pieces and de- 



DEHONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 99 

voured the horses which had been entombed with 
them, tlirew himself upon the companion who had 
just given him such a sign of devoted friendship, in 
order to treat him in the same manner. The hero, 
no way discountenanced by the horrors of his situa- 
tion, took to his amis, and defended himself manfully 
against Assueit, or rather against the evil demon 
v who tenanted that champion's body. In this manner 
the living brother waged a preternatural combat, 
which had endured during a whole century, when As- 
mund, at last obtaining the victory, prostrated his 
enemy, and by driving, as he boasted, a stake through 
his body, had finally reduced him to the state of quiet 
becoming a tenant of the tomb. Having chanted the 
triumphant account of his contest and victory, this 
mangled conqueror fell dead before them. The body 
of Assueit was taken out of the tomb, burned, and the 
ashes dispersed to heaven ; while that of the victor, 
now lifeless, and without a companion, was deposited 
there, so that it was hoped his slumbers might 
remain undisturbed.* The precautions taken against 
Assueifs reviving a second time, remind us of those 
adopted in the Greek islands, and in the Turkish pro- 
vinces, against the vampire. It affords also a deri- 
vation of the ancient English law in case of suicide, 
when a stake was driven through the body, originally 
to keep it secure in the tomb. 

The Northern people also acknowledged a kind of 
ghosts, who, when they had obtained possession of a 
building, or the right of haunting it, did not defend 
themselves against mortals on the knightly principle 
of duel, like Assueit, nor were amenable to the 
prayers of the priest or the spells of the sorcerer, but 
became tractable when properly convened in a legal 
process. The Eyrbiggia Saga acquaints us, that the 
mansion of a respectable landholder in Iceland was, 
D after the settlement of that island, exposed to a 

* See Saxo Grammaticus, Hiet. Dan. lib. v. 



100 LETTERS ON 

persecution of this kind. The molestation was pro- 
duced by the concurrence of certain mystical and 
spectral phenomena, calculated to introduce such 
persecution. About the commencement of winter, 
with that slight exchange of darkness and twilight 
which constitutes night and day in these latitudes, a 
contagious disease arose in a family of consequence, 
and in the neighbourhood, which, sweeping off seve- 
ral members of the family at different times, seemed 
to threaten them all with death. But the death of 
these persons was attended with the singular conse- 
quence, that their spectres were seen to wander in 
the neighbourhood of the mansion-house, terrifying, 
and even assaulting, those of the living family who 
ventured abroad. As the number of the dead mem- 
bers of the devoted household seemed to increase in 
proportion to that of the survivors, the ghosts took 
it upon them to enter the house, and produce their 
aerial forms and wasted physiognomy, even in the 
stove where the fire was maintained for the general 
use of the inhabitants, and which, in an Iceland win- 
ter, is the only comfortable place of assembling the 
family. But the remaining inhabitants of the place, 
terrified by the intrusion of these spectres, chose ra- 
ther to withdraw to the other extremity of the house, 
and abandon their warm seats, than to endure the 
neighbourhood of the phantoms. Complaints were 
at length made to a pontiff of the god Thor, named 
Snorro, who exercised considerable influence in the 
island. By his counsel, the young proprietor of the 
haunted mansion assembled a jury, or inquest, of his 
neighbours, constituted in the usual judicial form, as 
if to judge an ordinary civil matter, and proceeded, 
in their presence, to cite individually the various 
phantoms and resemblances of the deceased mem- 
bers of the family, to show by what warrant they dis- 
puted with him and his servants the quiet possession 
of his property, and what defence they could, plead 
for thus interfering with and incommoding the living. 



DEM0N0L0GY AND WITCHCRAFT. 101 

The spectres of the dead, by name, and in order, 
as summoned, appeared on their being called, and 
muttering some regrets at bein^ obliged to abandon 
their dwelling, departed, or vanished, from the as- 
tonished inquest. Judgment then went against the 
ghosts by default ; and the trial by jury, of which we 
here can trace the origin, obtained a triumph un- 
known to any of the great writers who have made it 
the subject of eulogy.* 

It was not only with the spirits of the dead that 
the warlike people of the North made war without 
timidity, and successfully entered into suits of eject- 
ment : these daring champions often braved the in- 
dignation even of the superior deities of their my- 
thology, rather than allow that there existed any 
being before whom their boldness could quail. Such 
is the singular story, how a young man of high 
courage, in crossing a desolate ridge of mountains, 
met with a huge wagon, in which the goddess 
Freya, («. e. a gigantic idol formed to represent her), 
together with her shrine, and the wealthy offerings 
attached to it, was travelling from one district of the 
country to another. The shrine, or sanctuary of the 
idol, was, like a modern caravan travelling with a 
show, screened by boards and curtains from the 
public gaze, and the equipage was under the imme- 
diate guidance of the priestess of Freya, a young, 
good-looking, and attractive woman. The traveller 
naturally associated himself with the priestess, who, 
as she walked on foot, apparently was in no degree 
displeased with the company of a powerful and 
handsome young man, as a guide and companion on 
the journey. It chanced, however, that the presence 
of the champion, and his discourse with the priestess, 
was less satisfactory to the goddess than to the par- 
ties principally concerned. By a certain signal the 
divinity summoned the priestess to the sanctuary, 

* » *t * Eyrbiggia Saga. See Northern Antiquities. 

12 



102 LETTERS ON 

who presently returned with tears in her eyes, and 
terror in her countenance, to inform her companion 
that it was the will of Freya that he should depart, 
and no longer travel in their company. " You must 
have mistaken the meaning' of the goddess," said the 
champion ; " Freya cannot have formed a wish so 
unreasonable, as to desire I should abandon the 
straight and good road, which leads me directly on 
my journey, to choose precipitous paths and by-roads, 
where I may break my neck." — " Nevertheless," said 
the priestess, " the goddess will be highly offended 
if you disobey her commands, nor can I conceal from 
you that she may personally assault you." — " It will 
be at her own peril if she should be so audacious," 
said the champion, " for I will try the power of this 
axe against the strength of beams and boards." 
The priestess chid him for his impiety ; but being 
unable to compel him to obey the goddess's man- 
date, they again relapsed into familiarity, which 
advanced to such a point, that a clattering noise 
within the tabernacle, as of machinery put in motion, 
intimated to the travellers that Freya, who perhaps 
had some qualities in common with the classical 
Vesta, thought a personal interruption of this tete-a- 
tete ought to be deferred no longer. The curtains 
flew open, and the massive and awkward idol, who, 
we may suppose, resembled in form the giant created 
by Frankenstein, leaped lumbering from the carriage, 
and rushing on the intrusive traveller, dealt him, 
with its wooden hands and arms, such tremendous 
blows, as were equally difficult to parry or to en- 
dure. But the champion was armed with a double- 
edged Danish axe, with which he bestirred himself 
with so much strength and activity, that at length he 
split the head of the image, and with a severe blow 
hewed off its left leg. The image of Freya then fell 
motionless to the ground, and the demon which had 
animated it, fled yelling from the battered tenement. 
The champion was now victor ; and, according to 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 103 

the law of arms, took possession of the female and 
the baggage. The priestess, the divinity of whose 
patroness had been, by the event of the combat, 
sorely lessened in her eyes, was now easily induced 
to become the associate and concubine of the con- 
queror. She accompanied him to the district whither 
he was travelling, and there displayed the shrine of 
Freya, taking care to hide the injuries which the 
goddess had received in the brawl. The champion 
came in for a share of a gainful trade driven by the 
priestess, besides appropriating to himself most of 
the treasures which the sanctuary had formerly con- 
tained. Neither does it appear that Freya, having, 
perhaps, a sensible recollection of the power of the 
axe, ever again ventured to appear in person for the 
purpose of calling her false stewards to account. 

The 'national estimation of deities, concerning 
whom such stories could be told and believed, was, 
of course, of no deep or respectful character. The 
Icelanders abandoned Odin, Freya, Thor, and their 
whole pagan mythology, in consideration of a single 
disputation between the heathen priests and the 
Christian missionaries. The priests threatened the 
island with a desolating eruption of the volcano 
called Hecla, as the necessary consequence of the 
vengeance of their deities. Snorro, the same who 
advised the inquest against the ghosts, had become 
a convert to the Christian religion, and was present 
on the occasion, and as the conference was held on 
the surface of what had been a stream of lava, now 
covered with vegetable substances, he answered the 
priests with much readiness, " To what was the in- 
dignation of the gods owing, when the substance on 
which we stand was fluid and scorching 1 Believe 
me, men of Iceland, the eruption of the volcano de- 
pends on natural circumstances, now as it did then, 
and is not the engine of vengeance intrusted to Thor 
and Odin." It is evident, that men who reasoned 
with so mueh accuracy concerning the imbecility of 



104 LETTERS ON 

Odin and Thor, were well prepared, on abandoning 
their worship, to consider their former deities, of 
whom they believed so much that was impious, in 
the light of evil demons. 

But there were some particulars of the Northern 
creed, in which it corresponded so exactly with that 
of the classics, as leaves room to doubt whether the 
original Asae, or Asiatics, the founders of the Scan- 
dinavian system, had, before their migration from 
Asia, derived them from some common source with 
those of the Greeks and Romans ; or whether, on 
the other hand, the same proneness of the human 
mind to superstition has caused that similar ideas 
are adopted in different regions, as the same plants 
are found in distant countries, without the one, as 
far as can be discovered, having obtained the seed 
from the others. 

The classical fiction, for example, of the satyrs, 
and other subordinate deities of wood and wild, 
whose power is rather delusive than formidable, and 
whose supernatural pranks intimate rather a wish to 
inflict terror than to do hurt, was received among 
the northern people, and perhaps transferred by them 
to the Celtic tribes. It is an idea which seems 
common to many nations. The existence of a 
satyr, in the sylvan form, is even pretended to be 
proved by the evidence of Saint Anthony, to whom 
one is said to have appeared in the desert. The 
Scottish Gael have an idea of the same kind, respect- 
ing a goblin called Ourisk, whose form is like that 
of Pan, and his attendants something between a man 
and a goat, the nether extremities being in the latter 
form. A species of cavern, or rather hole, in the 
rock, affords to the wildest retreat in the romantic 
neighbourhood of Loch Katrine, a name taken from 
classical superstition. It is not the least curious 
circumstance, that from this sylvan deity the modern 
nations of Europe have borrowed the degrading and 
unsuitable emblems of the goat's visage and form, the 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 105 

horns, hoofs, and tail, with which they have depicted 
the author of evil, when it pleased him to show himself 
on earth. So that the alteration of a single word 
would render Pope's well-known line more truly 
adapted to the fact, should we venture to read, 

" And Pan to Satan lends his heathen horn." 

We cannot attribute the transference of the attri- 
butes of the northern satyr, or Celtic ourisk, to the 
arch-fiend, to any particular resemblance between 
the character of these deities and that of Satan. On 
the contrary, the ourisk of the Celts was a creature 
by no means peculiarly malevolent, or formidably 
powerful; but rather a melancholy spirit, which 
dwelt in wildernesses far removed from men. If we 
are to identify him with the Brown Dwarf of the 
Border moors, the ourisk has a mortal terar of life, 
and a hope of salvation, as indeed the same high 
claim was made by the satyr who appeared to St. 
Anthony. Moreover, the Highland ourisk was a 
species of lubber fiend, and capable of being over- 
reached by those who understood philology. It is 
related of one of these goblins, which frequented a 
mill near the foot of Loch Lomond, that the miller, 
desiring to get rid of this meddling spirit, who injured 
the machinery by setting the water on the wheel 
when there was no grain to be ground, contrived to 
have a meeting with the goblin by watching in his 
mill till night. The ourisk then entered, and de- 
manded the miller's name, and was informed that he 
was called Myself; on which is founded a story almost 
exactly like that of Outis in the Odyssey, a tale 
which, though classic, is by no means an elegant or 
ingenious fiction, but which we are astonished to find 
in an obscure district, and in the Celtic tongue, seem- 
ing to argue some connexion or communication be- 
tween these remote Highlands of Scotland and the 
readers of Homer in former days, which we cannot 



106 Uetters on 

account for. After all, perhaps, some churchman 
more learned than his brethren may have transferred 
the legend from Sicily to Duncrune, from the shores 
of the Mediterranean to those of Loch Lomond. I 
have heard it also told, that the celebrated freebooter 
Rob Roy once gained a victory by disguising a part 
of his men with goat-skins, so as to resemble the 
ourisk, or Highland satyr. 

There was an individual, satyr called, I think, 
Meming, belonging to the Scandinavian mythology, 
of a character different from the ourisk, though 
similar in shape, whom it was the boast of the high- 
est champions to* seek out in the solitudes which he 
inhabited. He was an armourer of extreme dexterity, 
and the weapons which he forged were of the highest 
value. But as club-law pervaded the ancient 
system of Scandinavia, Meming had the honour of 
refusing to work for any customer save such as com- 
pelled him to it with force of arms. He may be, 
perhaps, identified with the recusant smith who fled 
before Fingal from Ireland to the Orkneys, and being 
there overtaken, was compelled to forge the sword 
which Fingal afterward wore in all' his battles, and 
which was called the Son of the dark brown Luno, 
from the name of the armourer who forged it.* 

From this it will appear that there were originals 
enough in the mythology of the Goths, as well as 
Celts, to furnish the modern attributes ascribed to 
Satan in later times, when the object of painter or 
poet was to display him in his true form, and with 
all his terrors. Even the genius of Guido and of 
Tasso have been unable to surmount this prejudice, 
the more rooted, perhaps, that the wicked are descri- 
bed as goats in Scripture, and that the Devil is called 
the old dragon. In RarTael's famous painting of the 
arch-angel Michael binding Satan, the dignity, power, 

* The weapon is often mentioned in Mr. Mac Pherson's paraphrases ; 
but the Irish ballad, which gives a spirited account of the debate between 
the champion and the armourer, is nowhere introduced. 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 107 

and angelic character expressed by the seraph, form 
an extraordinary contrast to the poor conception of 
a being who ought not, even in that lowest degrada- 
tion, to have seemed so unworthy an antagonist. 
Neither has Tasso been more happy, where he re- 
presents the divan of darkness, in the enchanted 
forest, as presided over by a monarch having a huge 
tail, hoofs, and all the usual accompaniments of popu- 
lar diablerie. The genius of Milton alone could 
discard all these vulgar puerilities, and assign to the 
author of evil the terrible dignity of one who should 
seem not "less than arch-angel ruined." This 
species of degradation is yet grosser when we take 
into consideration the changes which popular opi- 
nions have wrought respecting the taste, habits, 
powers, modes of tempting, and habits of tormenting, 
which are such as might rather be ascribed to some 
stupid, superannuated, and doting ogre of a fairy tale, 
than to the powerful-minded demon, who fell through 
pride and rebellion, not through folly or incapa- 
city. 

Having, however, adopted our present ideas of 
the Devil as they are expressed by his nearest ac- 
quaintances, the witches, from the accounts c 
tyrs, which seem to have been articles of faith both 
among the Celtic and Gothic tribes, we must next 
notice another fruitful fountain of demonological 
fancies. But as this source of the mythology of the 
middle ages must necessarily comprehend some ac- 
count of the fairy folk, to whom much of it must 
be referred, it is necessary to make a pause before 
we enter upon the mystic and marvellous connexion 
supposed to exist between the impenitent kingdom 
of Satan, and those merry dancers by moonlight. 






108 LETTERS ON 



LETTER IV. 

The Fairy Superstition is derived from different Sources — The classical 
Worship of the Sylvans, or rural Deities, proved by Roman Altars 
discovered— The Gothic Duergar, or Dwarfs— supposed to be derived 
from the Northern Laps, or Fins — The Niebelungen-Lied — King Lau- 
rin's Adventures— Celtic Fairies of a gayer Character, yet their Plea- 
sures empty and illusory — Addicted to carry off human Beings, both 
Infants and Adults — Adventures of a Butler a in Ireland — The Elves 
supposed to pay a Tax to Hell— The Irish, Welsh, Highlanders, and 
Manxmen, held the same Belief— It was rather rendered more gloomy 
by the Northern Traditions— Merlin and Arthur carried off by the 
Fairies— also Thomas of Erceldoune — His Amour with the Queen of 
Elrtand— His Re-appearance in latter Times — Another Account from 
Reginald Scot— Conjectures on the Derivation of the word Fairy. 

We may premise by observing, that the classics 
had not forgotten to enrol in their mythology a cer- 
tain species of subordinate deities, resembling the 
modern elves in their habits. Good old Mr. Gibb, of 
the Advocates' Library (whom all lawyers, whose 
youth he assisted in their studies by his knowledge 
of that noble collection, are bound to name with 
gratitude), used to point out among the ancient 
altars under his charge, one which is consecrated, 
Diis campestribus, and usually added, with a wink, 
"The Fairies, ye ken."* This relic of antiquity 
was discovered near Roxburgh Castle, and a vicinity 
more delightfully appropriate to the abode of the 
sylvan deities can hardly be found. Two rivers of 
considerable size, made yet more remarkable by the 
fame which has rendered them in some sort classi- 

* Another altar of elegant form, and perfectly preserved, was, within 
these few weeks, dug up near the junction of the Leader and the Tweed, 
in the neighbourhood of the village of Newstead, to the east of Melrose. 
It was inscribed by Carrius Domitianus, the prefect of the twentieth 
legion, to the god Sylvanus, forming another instance how much the 
wild and sylvan character of the country disposed the feelings of the 
Romans to acknowledge the presence of the rural deities. The altar is 
preserved at Drygrange, the seat of Mr. Tod. 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 109 

cal, unite their streams beneath the vestiges of an 
extensive castle, renowned in the wars with Eng- 
land, and for the valiant, noble, and even royal blood, 
which has been shed around and before it ; — a land- 
scape, ornamented with the distant village and huge 
abbey tower of Kelso, arising out of groves of aged 
trees ; — the modern mansion of Fleurs, with its ter- 
race, its woods, and its extensive lawn, form alto- 
gether a kingdom for Oberon and Titania to reign 
in, or any spirit who, before their time, might love 
scenery of which the majesty, and even the beauty, 
impress the mind with a sense of awe mingled with 
pleasure. These sylvans, satyrs, and fauns, with 
whom superstition peopled the lofty banks and tan- 
gled copses of this romantic country, were obliged 
to give place to deities very nearly resembling them- 
selves in character, who probably derive some 
of their attributes from their classic predecessors, 
although more immediately allied to the barbarian 
conquerors ;— we allude to the fairies, which, as re- 
ceived into the popular creed, and as described by 
the poets who have made use of them as machinery, 
are certainly among the most pleasing legacies of 
fancy. 

Dr. Leyden, who exhausted on this subject, as 
upon most others, a profusion of learning, found the 
first idea of the Elfin people in the northern opinions 
concerning the duergar, or dwarfs.* These were, 
however, it must be owned, spirits of a coarser sort, 
more laborious vocation, and more malignant tem- 
per, and in all respects less propitious to humanity, 
than the fairies, properly so called, which were the 
invention of the Celtic people, and displaced that 
superiority of taste and fancy, which, with the love of 
music and poetry, has been generally ascribed to their 
race, through its various classes and modifications. 

* See the Essay on the Fairy Superstition, in the " MinstreIsy' ! of tin 
Scottish Border," of which many of the materials were contributed 
Dr. Leyden, and the whole brought into its present form by the autbJ 
K 




110 LETTERS ON 

In fact, there seems reason to conclude that these 
duergar were originally nothing else than the dimi- 
nutive natives of the Lappish, Lettish, and Finnish 
nations, who, flying before the conquering weapons 
of the Asae, sought the most retired regions of the 
north, and there endeavoured to hide themselves 
from their eastern invaders. They were a little, 
diminutive race, but possessed of some skill probably 
in mining or smelting minerals, with which the 
country abounds ; perhaps also they might, from 
their acquaintance with the changes of the clouds, 
or meteorological phenomena, be judges of weather, 
and so enjoy another title to supernatural skill. At 
any rate, it has been plausibly supposed, that these 
poor people, who sought caverns and hiding-places 
from the persecution of the Asae, were in some re- 
spects compensated for inferiority in strength and 
stature, by the art and power with which the super- 
stition of the enemy invested them. These op- 
pressed yet dreaded fugitives obtained, naturally 
enough, the character of the German spirits^ called 
Kobold, from which the English Goblin and the 
Scottish Bogle, by some inversion and alteration of 
pronunciation, are evidently derived. 

The Kobolds were a species of gnomes, who 
haunted the dark and solitary places, and were often 
seen in the mines, where they seemed to imitate the 
labours of the miners, and sometimes took pleasure 
in frustrating their objects, and rendering their toil 
unfruitful. Sometimes they were malignant, espe- 
cially if neglected or insulted ; but sometimes also 
they wejff indulgent to individuals whom they took 
under thmr protection. When a miner, therefore, hit 
upon a rich vein of ore, the inference commonly was, 
not that he possessed more skill, industry, or even 
luck than his fellow-workmen, but that the spirits 
of the mine had directed him to the treasure. The 
employment and apparent occupation of these sub- 
terranean gnomes, or fiends, led very naturally to 



DEMOXOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. Ill 

identify the Fin, or Laplander, with the Kobold ; but 
it was a bolder stretch of the imagination, which 
confounded this reserved and sullen race with the 
livelier and gayer spirit which bears correspondence 
with the British fairy. Neither can we be surprised 
that the Duergar, ascribed by many persons to this 
source, should exhibit a darker and more malignant 
character than the elves that revel by moonlight in 
more southern climates. 

According to the old Norse belief, these dwarfs 
form the current machinery of the northern Sagas, 
and their inferiority in size is represented as com- 
pensated by skill and wisdom superior to those of 
ordinary mortals. In the Niebelungen-Lied, one of 
the oldest romances of Germany, and compiled, it 
would seem, not long after the time of Attila, Theo- 
dorick of Bern, or of Verona, figures among a cycle 
of champions, over whom he presides, like the Charle- 
magne of France, or Arthur of England. Among 
others vanquished by him is the Elf King, or Dwarf 
Laurin, whose dwelling was in an enchanted garden 
of roses, and who had a body-guard of giants, a sort 
of persons seldom supposed to be themselves conju- 
rors. He becomes a formidable opponent to Theo- 
dorick and his chivalry; but as he attempted by 
treachery to attain the victory, he is, when over- 
come, condemned to fill the dishonourable yet ap- 
propriate office of buffoon and juggler at the court 
of Verona.* 

Such possession of supernatural wisdom is still 
imputed, by the natives of the Orkney and Zetland 
islands, to the people called Drows, being a corrup- 
tion of Duergar or dwarfs, and who may, in most 
other respects, be identified with the Caledonian 
fairies. Lucas Jacobson Debes, who dates his de- 
scription of Feroe from his Pathmos, in Thors-haven, 

* See an abstract, by the late learned Henry Weber, of a Lay on this 
subject of King Laurin, compiled by Henrv of Osterdingen. Northern 
Antiquities, Edinburgh, 1814 



112 LETTERS ON 

12th March, 1670, dedicates a long chapter to the 
spectres who disturbed his congregation, and some- 
times carried off his hearers. The actors in these 
disturbances he states to be the Skow, or Biergen- 
Trold, u e. the spirits of the woods and mountains, 
sometimes called subterranean people, and adds, they 
appeared in deep caverns and among horrid rocks ; 
as also, that they haunted the places where murders, 
or other deeds of mortal sin, had been acted. They 
appear to have been the genuine northern dwarfs, 
or Trows, another pronunciation of Trollds, and are 
considered by the reverend author as something very 
little better than actual fiends. 

But it is not only, or even chiefly, to the Gothic 
race that we must trace the opinions concerning the 
elves of the middle ages ; these, as already hinted, 
were deeply blended with the attributes which the 
Celtic tribes had, from the remotest ages, ascribed 
to their deities of rocks, valleys, and forests. We 
have already observed, what indeed makes a great 
feature of their national character, that the power of 
the imagination is peculiarly active among the Celts, 
and leads to an enthusiasm concerning national 
music and dancing, national poetry and song, the 
departments in which fancy most readily indulges 
herself. The Irish, the Welch, the Gael or Scottish 
Highlander, all tribes of Celtic descent, assigned to 
the men of peace, good neighbours, or by whatever 
other names they called these sylvan pigmies, more 
social habits, and a course of existence far more gay, 
than the sullen and heavy toils of the more satur- 
nine Duergar. Their elves did not avoid the 
society of men, though they behaved to those 
who associated with them with caprice, which 
rendered it dangerous to displease them; and al- 
though their gifts were sometimes valuable, they 
were usually wantonly given, and unexpectedly 
resumed. 

The employment, the benefits, the amusements of 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 113 

the Fairy court, resembled the aerial people them- 
selves. Their government was always represented 
as monarchical. A King, more frequently a Queen, 
of Fairies, was acknowledged ; and sometimes both 
held their court together. Their pageants and court 
entertainments comprehended all that the imagination 
could conceive of what was, by that age, accounted 
gallant and splendid. At their processions, they 
paraded more beautiful steeds than those of mere 
earthly parentage — the hawks and hounds which they 
employed in their chase were of the first race. At 
their daily banquets, the board was set forth with a 
splendour which the proudest kings of the earth 
dared not aspire to ; and the hall of their dancers 
echoed to the most exquisite music. But when 
viewed by the eye of a seer the illusion vanished. 
The young knights and beautiful ladies showed them- 
selves as wrinkled carles and odious hags — their 
wealth turned into slate-stones — their splendid plate 
into pieces of clay fantastically twisted — and their 
victuals, unsavoured by salt (prohibited to them, we 
are told, because an emblem of eternity), became 
tasteless and insipid — the stately halls were turned 
into miserable damp caverns — all the delights of the 
Elfin Elysium vanished at once. In a word, their 
pleasures were showy, but totally unsubstantial — 
their activity unceasing, but fruitless and unavailing 
— and their condemnation appears to have consisted 
in the necessity of maintaining the appearance of 
constant industry or enjoyment, though their toil 
was fruitless, and their pleasures shadowy and un- 
substantial. Hence poets have designed them as 
" the crew that never rest" Besides the miceasing 
and useless bustle in which these spirits seemed to 
live, they had propensities unfavourable and distress- 
ing to mortals. 

One injury of a very serious nature was supposed 
to be constantly practised by the fairies against " the 
human mortals," that of carrying off their children, 
K2 



114 LETTERS ON 

and breeding them as beings of their race. Un- 
christened infants were chiefly exposed to this cala- 
mity ; but adults were also liable to be abstracted 
from earthly commerce, notwithstanding it was their 
natural sphere. With respect to the first, it may be 
easily conceived that the want of the sacred cere- 
mony of introduction into the Christian Church ren- 
dered them the more obnoxious to the power of those 
creatures, who, if not to be in all respects considered 
as fiends, had, nevertheless, considering their con- 
stant round of idle occupation, little right to rank 
themselves among good spirits, and were accounted 
by most divines as belonging to a very different class. 
An adult, on the other hand, must have been engaged 
in some action which exposed him to the power of 
the spirits, and so, as the legal phrase went, " taken 
in the manner." Sleeping on a Fairy mount, within 
which the Fairy court happened to be held for the 
time, was a very ready mode of obtaining a passport 
for Elrland. It was well for the individual if the 
irate elves were contented, on such occasions, with 
transporting him through the air to a city at some 
forty miles distance, and leaving, perhaps, his hat or 
bonnet on some steeple between, to mark the direct 
line of his course. Others, when engaged in some 
unlawful action, or in the act of giving way to some 
headlong and sinful passion, exposed themselves also 
to become inmates of Fairy land. 

The same belief oh these points obtained in Ire- 
land. Glanville, in his Eighteenth Relation, tells us 
of the butler of a gentleman, a neighbour of the Earl 
of Orrery, who was sent to purchase cards. In 
crossing the fields, he saw a table surrounded by 
people apparently feasting and making merry. They 
rose to salute him, and invited him to join in their 
revel ; but a friendly voice from the party whispered 
in his ear, " Do nothing which this company invite 
you to." Accordingly, when he refused to join in 
feasting, the table vanished, and the company began 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 115 

to dance, and play on musical instruments ; but the 
butler would not take part in these recreations. 
They then left off dancing, and betook themselves 
to work ; but neither in this would the mortal join 
them. He was then left alone for the present ; but 
in spite of the exertions of my Lord Orrery, in 
spite of two bishops who were his guests at the 
time, in spite of the celebrated Mr. Greatrix, it was 
all they could do to prevent the butler from being 
carried off bodily from among them by the fairies, 
who considered him as their lawful prey. They 
raised him in the air above the heads of the mortals, 
who could only run beneath, to break his fall when 
they pleased to let him go. The spectre which for- 
merly advised the poor man, continued to haunt him, 
and at length discovered himself to be the ghost of 
an acquaintance who had been dead for seven years. 
" You know," added he, " I lived a loose life, and 
ever since have 1 been hurried up and down in a 
restless condition, with the company you saw, and 
shall be till the day of judgment." He added, that 
if the butler had acknowledged God in all his ways, 
he had not suffered so much by their means ; he re- 
minded him that he had not prayed to God in the 
morning before he met with this company in the 
field, and, moreover, that he was then going on an 
unlawful business. 

It is pretended that Lord Orrery confirmed the 
whole of this story, even to having seen the butler 
raised into the air by the invisible beings who strove 
to carry him off. Only he did not bear witness to 
the passage which seems to call the purchase of cards 
an mil awful errand.* 

Individuals whose lives have been engaged in 
intrigues of politics or stratagems of war were 
sometimes surreptitiously carried off to Fairy land ; 
as Alison Pearson, the sorceress who cured Arcji^i 

* Sadducismus Triumphatus, by Joseph Glanvi!le= Edinburgh, 
1700, p. 131. 






116 LETTERS ON 

bishop Adamson, averred that she had recognised 
in the Fairy court the celebrated Secretary Lething- 
ton, and the old Knight of Buccleuch, the one of 
whom had been the most busy politician, the other 
one of the most unwearied partisans of Queen Mary, 
during the reign of that unfortunate Queen. Upon 
the whole, persons carried off by sudden death were 
usually suspected of having fallen into the hands of 
fairies, and unless redeemed from their power, which 
it was not always safe to attempt, were doomed to 
conclude their lives with them. We must not omit 
to state, that those who had an intimate communica- 
tion with these spirits, while they were yet inhabit- 
ants of middle earth, were most apt to be seized 
upon and carried off to Elfland before their death. 

The reason assigned for this kidnapping of the hu- 
man race, so peculiar to the elfin people, is said to be 
that they were under a necessity of paying to the infer- 
nal regions a yearly tribute out of their population, 
which they were willing to defray by delivering up to 
the prince of these regions the children of the human 
race, rather than their own. From this it must be 
inferred, that they have offspring among themselves, 
as it is said by some authorities, and particularly by 
Mr. Kirke, the minister of Aberfoyle. He indeed 
adds, that, after a certain length of life, these spirits 
are subject to the universal lot of mortality, — a 
position, however, which has been controverted, and 
is scarcely reconcilable to that which holds them 
amenable to pay a tax to hell, which infers exist- 
ence as eternal as the fire which is not quenched. 
The opinions on the subject of the fairy people here 
expressed, are such as are entertained in the High- 
lands, and some remote quarters of the Lowlands, 
of Scotland. We know, from the lively and enter- 
taining legends published by Mr. Crofton Croker — 
which, though in most cases told with the wit of 
the editor and the humour of his country, contain 
points of curious antiquarian information—that the 



DEM0N0L0GY AND WITCHCRAFT. 117 

opinions of the Irish are conformable to the account 
we have given of the general creed of the Celtic 
nations repecting elves. If the Irish elves are any- 
wise distinguished from those of Britain, it seems 
to be by their disposition to divide into factions, and 
fight among themselves — a pugnacity characteristic 
of the Green Isle. The Welch fairies, according to 
John Lewis, barrister-at-law, agree in the same 
general attributes with those of Ireland and Britain. 
We must not omit the creed of the Manxmen, since 
we find, from the ingenious researches of Mr. Wal- 
dron, that the Isle of Man, beyond other places in 
Britain, was a peculiar depository of the fairy tradi- 
tions, which, on the island being conquered by the 
Norse, became in all probability checkered with 
those of Scandinavia, from a source peculiar and 
more direct than that by which they reached Scot- 
land or Ireland. 

Such as it was, the popular system of the Celts 
easily received the northern admixture of Drows 
and Duergar, which gave the belief, perhaps, a 
darker colouring than originally belonged to the 
British Fairy land. It was from the same source also, 
in all probability, that additional legends were ob- 
tained, of a gigantic and malignant female, the 
Hecate of this mythology, who rode on the storm, 
and marshalled the rambling host of wanderers under 
her grim banner. This hag (in all respects the 
reverse of the Mab or Titania of the Celtic creed), 
was called Nicneven, in that latter system which 
blended the faith of the Celts and of the Goths on this 
subject. The great Scottish poet Dnnbar has made 
a spirited description of this Hecate riding at the 
head of witches and good neighbours (fairies, 
namely), sorceresses and elves, indifferently, upon 
the ghostly eve of All-Hallow Mass.* In Italy we 
hear of the hags arraying themselves under the orders 

* See Flyiing of Dunbar and Kennedy. 



118 LETTERS ON 

of Diana (in her triple character of Hecate, doubt- 
less), and Herodias, who were the joint leaders of 
their choir. But we return to the more simple fairy 
belief, as entertained by the Celts before they were 
conquered by the Saxons. 

Of these early times we can know little ; but it is 
singular to remark what light the traditions of Scot- 
land throw upon the poetiy of the Britons of Cum- 
berland, then called Reged. Merlin Wyllt, or the 
wild, is mentioned by both; and that renowned 
wizard the son of an elf, or fairy, with King Arthur, 
the dubious champion of Britain at that early period, 
were both said by tradition to have been abstracted 
by the fairies, and to have vanished, without having 
suffered death, just at the time when it was sup- 
posed, that the magic of the wizard, and the cele- 
brated sword of the monarch, which had done so 
much to preserve British independence, could no 
longer avert the impending ruin. It may be con- 
jectured that there was a desire on the part of 
Arthur, or his surviving champions, to conceal his 
having received a mortal wound in the fatal battle 
of Camlan ; and to that we owe the wild and beau- 
tiful incident so finely versified by Bishop Percy, in 
which, in token of his renouncing in future the use 
of arms, the monarch sends his attendant, sole sur- 
vivor of the field, to throw his sword, Excalibar, into 
the lake hard by. Twice eluding the request, the 
esquire at last complied, and threw the far-famed 
weapon into the lonely mere. A hand and arm arose 
from the water and caught Excalibar by the hilt, 
flourished it thrice, and then sank into the lake.* 
The astonished messenger returned to his master to 
tell him of the marvels he had seen, but he only saw 
a boat at a distance push from the land, and heard 
shrieks of females in agony : — 

* See Percy's Relics of Ancient English Poetry. 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 119 

" And whether the King was there or not 

He never knew, he never colde, 
For never since that doleful day 
Was British Arthur seen on molde." 

The circumstances attending the disappearance of 
.Merlin would probably be found as imaginative as 
those of Arthur's removal, but they cannot be reco- 
vered; and, what is singular enough, circumstances 
which originally belonged to the history of this 
famous bard, said to be the son of the Demon himself, 
have been transferred to a later poet, and surely one 
of scarce inferior name, Thomas of Erceldoune. The 
legend was supposed to be only preserved among 
the inhabitants of his native valleys, but a copy as 
old as the reign of Henry VII. has been recovered. 
The story is interesting and beautifully told, and, as 
one of the oldest fairy legends, may well be quoted 
m this place. 

Thomas of Erceldoune, in Lauderdale, called the 
Rhymer, on account of his producing a poetical 
romance on the subject of Tristrem and Yseult, 
which is curious as the earliest specimen of English 
verse known to exist, flourished in the reign of x4lex- 
ander III. of Scotland. Like other men of talent of 
the period, Thomas was suspected of magic. He 
was said also to have the gift of prophecy, which 
was accounted for in the following peculiar manner, 
referring entirely to the Elfin superstition. As True 
Thomas (we give him the epithet by anticipation) 
lay on Huntley bank, a place on the descent of the 
Eildon hills, which raise their triple crest above the 
celebrated monastery of Melrose, he saw a lady so 
extremely beautiful that he imagined it must be the 
Virgin Mary herself. Her appointments, however, 
were those rather of an Amazon or goddess of the 
woods. Her steed was of the highest beauty and 
spirit, and at his mane hung thirty silver bells and 
nine, which made music to the wind as she paced 
along: her saddle was of royal bone (ivory), laid 



120 LETTERS ON 

over with orfeverie, i. e. goldsmith's work : her stir- 
rups, her dress, all corresponded with her extreme 
beauty and the magnificence of her array. The fair 
huntress had her bow in hand, and her arrows at 
her belt. She led three greyhounds in a leash, and 
three raches, or hounds of scent, followed her closely. 
She rejected and disclaimed the homage which 
Thomas desired to pay to her; so that, passing 
from one extremity to the other, Thomas became as 
bold as he had at first been humble. The lady warns 
him that he must become her slave, if he should 
prosecute his suit towards her in the maimer he pro- 
poses. Before their interview terminates, the appear- 
ance of the beautiful lady is changed into that of the 
most hideous hag in existence ; one side is blighted 
and wasted, as if by palsy ; one eye drops from her 
head ; her colour, as clear as the virgin silver, is now 
of a dun leaden hue. A witch from the spital or 
almshouse would have been a goddess in comparison 
to the late beautiful huntress. Hideous as she was, 
Thomas's irregular desires had placed him under the 
control of this hag, antf when she bade him take 
leave of sun, and of the leaf that grew on tree, he felt 
himself under the necessity of obeying her. A ca- 
vern received them, in which, following his frightful 
guide, he for three, days travelled in darkness, some- 
times hearing the booming of a distant ocean, some- 
times walking thrown rivers of blood, which crossed 
their subterranean path. At length, they emerged 
into daylight, in a iriost beautiful orchard. Thomas, 
almost fainting for want of food, stretches out his 
hand towards the goodly fruit which hangs around 
him, but is forbidden by his conductress, who informs 
him these are the fatal apples which were the cause 
of the fall of man. He perceives also that his guide 
had no sooner entered this mysterious ground, and 
breathed its magic air, than she was revived in beauty, 
equipage, and splendour, as fair or fairer than he had 
first seen her on the mountain. She then commands 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 121 

him to lay his head upon her knee, and proceeds to 
explain to him the character of the country. " Yon- 
der right-hand path," she says, " conveys the spirits 
of the bless'd to paradise ; yon downward and well- 
worn way leads sinful souls to the place of ever- 
lasting punishment ; the third road, by yonder dark 
brake, conducts to the milder place of pain, from 
which prayer and mass may release offenders. But 
see you yet a fourth road, sweeping along the plain 
to yonder splendid castle 1 yonder is the road to 
Elfland, to which we are now bound. The lord of 
the castle is king of the country, and I am his queen. 
But, Thomas, I would rather be drawn with wild 
horses, than he should know what hath passed be- 
tween you and me. Therefore, when we enter 
yonder castle, observe strict silence, and answer no 
question that is asked at you, and I will account for 
your silence by saying I took your speech when I 
brought you from middle earth." 

Having thus instructed her lover, they journeyed 
on to the castle, and entering by the kitchen, found 
themselves in the midst of such a festive scene as 
might become the mansion of a great feudal lord or 
prince. Thirty carcasses of deer were lying on the 
massive kitchen board, under the hands of numerous 
cooks, who toiled to cut them up and dress them r 
while the gigantic greyhounds which had taken the 
spoil lay lapping the blood, and enjoying the sight of 
the slain game. They came next to the royal hall, 
where the king received his loving consort 'without 
censure or suspicion. Knights and ladies, dancing 
by threes (reels, perhaps), occupied the floor of the 
hall, and Thomas, the fatigues of his journey from 
the Eildon hills forgotten, went forward and joined 
in the revelry. After a period, however, which 
seemed to him a very short one, the queen spoke with, 
him apart, and bade him prepare to return to his own- 
country. " Now," said the queen, " how long think 
you that you have been here ]"— " Certes. fair lady y " 
L 



122 LETTERS ON 

answered Thomas, " not above these seven days." — 
" You are deceived," answered the queen, " you have 
been seven years in this castle ; and it is full time you 
were gone. Know, Thomas, that the fiend of hell 
will come to this castle to-morrow to demand his tri- 
bute, and so handsome a man as you will attract his 
eye. For all the world would I not suffer you to be be- 
trayed to such a fate ; therefore up, and let us be 
going." These terrible news reconciled Thomas to 
his departure from Elfin land, and the queen was not 
long in placing him upon Huntly bank, where the 
birds were singing* She took a tender leave of him, 
and to insure his reputation, bestowed on him the 
tongue which covld not lie. Thomas in vain objected 
to this inconvenient and involuntary adhesion to ve- 
racity, which would make him, as he thought, unfit 
for church or for market, for king's court or for lady's 
bower. But all his remonstrances were disregarded 
by the lady, and Thomas the Rhymer, whenever the 
discourse turned on the future, gained the credit of 
a prophet whether he would or not ; for he could say 
nothing but what was sure to come to pass. It is 
plain, that had Thomas been a legislator instead of 
a poet, we have here the story of Numa and Egeria. 
Thomas remained several years in his own tower 
near Erceldoune, and enjoyed the fame of his pre- 
dictions, several of which are current among the 
country people to this day. At length, as the pro- 
phet was entertaining the Earl of March in his 
dwelling, a cry of astonishment arose in the village, 
on the appearance of a hart and hind,* which left 
the forest, and, contrary to their shy nature, came 
quietly onward, traversing the village towards the 
dwelling of Thomas. The prophet instantly rose 
from the board ; and, acknowledging the prodigy as 
the summons of his fate, he accompanied the hart 

* This last circumstance seems imitated from a passage in the Life 
of Merlin, by Jeffrey of Monmouth. See Ellis's Ancient Romances, 
\oi. i. p. 73. 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 123 

and hind into the forest, and though occasionally 
seen by individuals to whom he has chosen to show 
himself, has never again mixed familiarly with 
mankind. 

Thomas of Erceldoune, during his retirement, 
has been supposed, from time to time, to be levying 
forces to take the field in some crisis of his country's 
fate. The story has often been told, of a daring 
horse-jockey having sold a black horse to a man of 
venerable and antique appearance, who appointed 
the remarkable hillock upon Eildon hills, called the 
Lucken hare, as the place where, at twelve o'clock 
at night, he should receive the price. He came, 
his money was paid in ancient coin, and he was in- 
vited by his customer to view his residence. The 
trader in horses followed his guide in the deepest 
astonishment through several long ranges of stalls, 
in each of which a horse stood motionless, while an 
armed warrior lay equally still at the charger's feet. 
" All these men," said the wizard, in a whisper, 
"will awaken at the battle of SherifTmoor." At 
the extremity of this extraordinary depot hung a 
sword and a horn, which the prophet pointed out to 
the horse-dealer as containing the means of dis- 
solving the spell. The man in confusion took the 
horn, and attempted to wind it. The horses instantly 
started in their stalls, stamped, and shook their bri- 
dles, the men arose and clashed their armour, and 
the mortal, terrified at the tumult he had excited, 
dropped the horn from his hand. A voice like that 
of a giant, louder even than the tumult around, pro- 
nounced these words : — 

11 Wo to the coward that ever he was born, 
That did not draw the sword before he blew the horn I" 

A whirlwind expelled the horse-dealer from the ca- 
vern, the entrance to which he could never again 
find. A moral might be perhaps extracted from the 
legend, — namely, that it is best to be armed against 



12* LETTERS ON 

danger before bidding it defiance. But it is a circum- 
stance worth notice, that although this edition of 
the tale is limited to the year 1715, by the very men- 
tion of the SherifTmoor, yet a similar story appears 
to have been current during the reign of Queen 
Elizabeth, which is given by Reginald Scot. The 
narrative is edifying, as peculiarly illustrative of the 
mode of marring a curious tale in telling it, which 
was one of the virtues professed by Caius when 
he hired himself to King Lear. Reginald Scot, in- 
credulous on the subject of witchcraft, seems to have 
given some weight to the belief of those who thought 
that the spirits of famous men do, after death, take 
up some particular habitations near cities, towns, 
and countries, and act as tutelary and guardian 
spirits to the places which they loved while in the 
flesh. 

" But more particularly to illustrate this conjec- 
ture," says he, " I could name a person who hath 
lately appeared thrice since his decease, at least 
some ghostly being or other that calls itself by the 
name of such a person, who was dead above a hun- 
dred years ago, and was, in his lifetime, accounted 
as a prophet or predicter, by the assistance of sub- 
lunary spirits ; and now, at his appearance, did also 
give strange predictions respecting famine and plenty, 
war and bloodshed, and the end of the world. By 
the information of the person that had communi- 
cation with him, the last of his appearances was in 
the following manner. " I had been," said he, " to 
sell a horse at the next market town, but not attaining 
my price, as I returned home, by the way I met this 
man, who began to be familiar with me, asking what 
news, and how affairs moved through the country? 
I answered as I thought fit ; withal, I told him of my 
horse, whom he began to cheapen, and proceeded 
with me so far, that the price was agreed upon. So 
he turned back with me, and told me that if I would 
go along with him, I should receive my money. 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 125 

On our way we went, I upon my horse, and he on ano- 
ther milk-white beast. After much travel, I asked him 
where he dwelt, and what his name was 1 He told me 
that his dwelling was a mile off at a place called Far- 
ran, of which place I had never heard, though I knew 
all the country round about.* He also told me 
that he himself was that person of the family of 
Learmonths,f so much spoken of as a prophet. At 
which I began to be somewhat fearful, perceiving 
we were on a road which 1 never had been on be- 
fore, which increased my fear and amazement more. 
Well ! on we went till he brought me under ground, 
I knew not how, into the presence of a beautiful wo- 
man, who paid the money without a word speaking. 
He conducted me out again through a large and long 
entry, where I saw above six hundred men in ar- 
mour laid prostrate on the ground, as if asleep. At 
last I found myself in the open field, by the help of 
the moonlight, in the very place where I first met 
him, and made a shift to get home by three in the 
morning. But the money I had received was just 
double of what I esteemed it when the woman paid 
me, of which, at this instant, I have several pieces 
to show, consisting of ninepennies, thirteen-pence- 
halfpennies," &c.{ 

It is a great pity that this horse-dealer, having 
specimens of the fairy coin, of a quality more per- 
manent than usual, had not favoured us with an ac- 
count of an impress so valuable to medalists. It is 
not the less edifying, as we are deprived of the more 
picturesque parts of the story, to learn that Thomas's 
payment was as faithful as his prophecies. The 

* In this the author is in the same ignorance as his namesake Regi- 
nald, though having at least as many opportunities o fin formation. 

t In popular tradition, the name oV Thomas the Rhymer was always 
averred to be Learmonth, though he neither uses it himself, nor is de- 
scribed by his son other than Le Rymour. The Learmonths ol Dairsie, 
in Fife, claimed descent from the prophet. 

t Discourse of Devils and Spirits appended to the Discovery of 
Witchcraft, by Reginald Scot, Esq., book iii. chap, ii, § 19. 

X.2 



126 LETTERS ON 

beautiful lady who bore the purse must have been 
undoubtedly the Fairy Queen, whose affection, 
though, like that of his own heroine Yseult, we 
cannot term it altogether laudable, seems yet to 
have borne a faithful and firm character. 

I have dwelt at some length on the story of 
Thomas the Rhymer, as the oldest tradition of the 
kind which has reached us in detail, and as pretend- 
ing to show the fate of the first Scottish poet, whose 
existence, and its date, are established both by his- 
tory and records ; and who, if we consider him as 
writing in the Anglo-Norman language, was cer- 
tainly one among the earliest of its versifiers. But 
the legend is still more curious, from its being the 
first, and most distinguished instance, of a man 
alleged to have obtained supernatural knowledge by 
means of the fairies. 

Whence or how this singular community derived 
their more common popular name, we may say has 
not as yet been veiy clearly established. It is the 
opinion of the learned, that the Persian word Peri* 
expressing an unearthly being, of a species very 
similar, will afford the best derivation, if we suppose 
it to have reached Europe through the medium of 
the Arabians, in whose alphabet the letter P does 
not exist, so that they pronounce the word Feri in- 
stead of Peri. Still there is something uncertain in 
this etymology. We hesitate to ascribe, either to 
the Persians or the Arabians, the distinguishing 
name of an ideal commonwealth, the notion of which 
they certainly did not contribute to us. Some are, 
therefore, tempted to suppose, that the elves may 
have obtained their most frequent name from their 
being, par excellence^ a fair or comely people, a qua- 
lity which they affected on all occasions ; while the 
superstition of the Scottish was likely enough to 
give them a name which might propitiate the vanity 
for which they deemed the race remarkable; just 
«.s, in other instances, they called the fays "men 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 127 

of peace," " good neighbours," and by other titles 
of the like import. It must be owned, at the same 
time, that the words fay and fairy may have been 
mere adoptions of the French/ee and J eerie, though 
these terms, on the other side of the Channel, have 
reference to a class of spirits corresponding, not to 
our fairies, but with the far different Fata of the 
Italians. But this is a question which we willingly 
leave for the decision of better etymologists than 
ourselves. 

/ 



LETTER V. 

Those who dealt in Fortune-telling, Mystical Cures by Charms, and the 
like, often claimed an Intercourse with Fairy Land — Hudhart or 
Hudikm— Pitcairn's Scottish Criminal Trials— Story of Bessie Dun- 
lop and her Adviser — Her Practice of Medicine — and of Discovery of 
Theft — Account of her Familiar, Thome Reid— Trial of Alison 
Pearson — Account of her Familiar, William Syrnpson — Trial of the 
Lady Fowlis, and of Hector Munro, her step-son — Extraordinary 
Species of Charm used by tbe latter — Confession of John Stewart, a 
Juggler, of his Intercourse with the Fairies— Trial and Confession 
of Tsobel Gowdie — Use of Elf-arrow Heads — Parish of Aberfoyle-*— 
Mr. Kirke, the Minister cf Aberfoyle's Work on Fairy Superstitions 
—He is himself taken to Fairyland — Dr. Grahame's interesting 
Work, and his Information on Fairy Superstitions— Story of a 
Female in East Lothian carried off by the Fairies — Another Instance 
froni Pennant. 

To return to Thomas the Rhymer, with an ac- 
count of whose legend I concluded the last letter, it 
would seem, that the example which it afforded of 
obtaining the gift of prescience, and other super- 
natural powers, by means of the fairy people, be- 
came the common apology of those who attempted 
to cure diseases, to tell fortimes, to revenge injuries, 
or to engage in traffic with the invisible world, for 
the purpose of satisfying their own wishes, curiosity, 
or revenge, or those of others. Those who prac- 
tised the petty arts of deception in such mystic 



128 LETTERS ON 

cases, being naturally desirous to screen their own 
impostures, were willing to be supposed to derive 
from the fairies, or from mortals transported to fairy- 
land, the power necessary to effect the displays of 
art which they pretended to exhibit. A confession 
of direct communication and league with Satan, 
though the accused were too frequently compelled 
by torture to admit and avow such horrors, might, 
the poor wretches hoped, be avoided, by the avowal 
of a less disgusting intercourse with sublunary 
spirits, a race which might be described by nega- 
tives, being neither angels, devils, nor the souls of 
deceased men; nor would it, they might flatter 
themselves, be considered as any criminal alliance, 
that they held communion with a race not properly 
hostile to man, and willing, on certain conditions, 
to be useful and friendly to him. Such an inter- 
course was certainly far short of the witch's re- 
nouncing her salvation, delivering herself personally 
to the devil, and at once ensuring condemnation in 
this world, together with the like doom in the next. 
Accordingly, the credulous, who, in search of 
health, knowledge, greatness, or moved by any of 
the numberless causes for which men seek to look 
into futurity, were anxious to obtain superhuman 
assistance, as well as the numbers who had it in 
view to dupe such willing clients, became, both 
cheated and cheaters, alike anxious to establish the 
possibility of a harmless process of research into 
futurity, for laudable or at least innocent objects, 
as healing diseases, and the like ; in short, of the 
existence of white magic, as it was called, in op- 
position to that black art exclusively and directly 
derived from intercourse with Satan. Some endea- 
voured to predict a man's fortune in marriage, or his 
success in life, by the aspect of the stars ; others 
pretended to possess spells, by which they could 
reduce and compel an elementary spirit to enter 
within a stone, a looking-glass, or some other local 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 129 

place of abode, and confine her there by the power 
of an especial charm, conjuring her to abide and 
answer the questions of her master. Of these we 
shall afterward say something ; but the species of 
evasion now under our investigation is that of the 
fanatics or impostors, who pretended to draw in- 
formation from the equivocal spirits called fairies ; 
and the number of instances before us is so great as 
induces us to believe, that the pretence of commu- 
nicating with Elfland, and not with the actual de- 
mon, was the manner in which the persons accused 
of witchcraft most frequently endeavoured to excuse 
themselves, or at least to alleviate the charges 
brought against them of practising sorcery. But 
the Scottish law did not acquit those who accom- 
plished even praiseworthy actions, such as remark- 
able cures, by mysterious remedies ; and the pro- 
prietor of a patent medicine, who should in those 
days have attested his having wrought such miracles 
as we see sometimes advertised, might perhaps have 
forfeited his life before he established the reputation 
of his drop, elixir, or pill. 

Sometimes the soothsayers, who pretended to act 
on this information from sublunary spirits, soared 
to higher matters than the practice of physic, and 
interfered in the fate of nations. When James the 
First was murdered at Perth, in 1437, a Highland 
woman prophesied the course and purpose of the 
conspiracy, and had she been listened to, it might 
have been disconcerted. Being asked her source of 
knowledge, she answered, Hudhart had told her; 
which might either be the same with Hudikin, a 
Dutch spirit somewhat similar to Friar 'Rush, or 
Robin Goodfellow,* or with the red-capped demon 

* M Hudkin is a very familiar devil, who will do nobody hurt, except 
he receive injury ; but he cannot abide that, nor yet be mocked. He 
talketh with men friendly, sometimes visibly, sometimes invisibly. 
There go as many tales upon this Hudkin in some parts of Germany, as 
there did in England on Robin Goodfellow. — Discourse concerning" 
Devils, annexed to The Discovery of Witchcraft by Reginald Scot, 
book i. chap. xxi. 



130 LETTERS ON 

so powerful in the case of Lord Soulis, and other 
wizards, to whom the Scots assigned rather more 
serious influence. 

The most special account which I have found of 
the intercourse between fairyland and a female pro- 
fessing to have some influence in that court, com- 
bined with a strong desire to be useful to the distressed 
of both sexes, occurs in the early part of a work to 
which I have been exceedingly obliged in the present 
and other publications.* The details of the evidence, 
which consists chiefly of the unfortunate woman's 
own confession, are more full than usual, and com- 
prehend some curious particulars. To spare techni- 
cal repetitions, I must endeavour to select the princi- 
pal facts in evidence in detail so far as they bear upon 
the present subject. 

On the 8th November, 1576, Elizabeth or Bessie 
Dunlop, spouse to Andro Jak, in Lyne, in the Barony 
of Dairy, Ayrshire, was accused of sorcery and 
witchcraft, and abuse of the people. Her answers 
to the interrogatories of the judges or prosecutors ran 
thus. It being required of her, by what art she could 
tell of lost goods, or prophesy the event of illness ? 
she replied, that of herself she had no knowledge or 
science of such matters, but that when questions 
were asked at her concerning such matters, she was 
in the habit of applying to one Thome Reid, who 
died at the battle of Pinkie (10th September, 1547) 
as he himself affirmed, and who resolved her any 
questions which she asked at him. This person she 
described as a respectable, elderly-looking man, gray- 
bearded, and wearing a gray coat, with Lombard 
sleeves, of the auld fashion. A pair of gray breeches 
and white stockings gartered above the knee, a black 
bonnet on Iris head, close behind and plain before, 

* The curious collection of Trials, from the Criminal Records of Scot- 
land, now in the course of publication, by Robert Pitcaim, Esq. affords 
so singular a picture of the manners and habits of our ancestors, 
while yet a semibarbarous people, that it is equally worth the attention 
of the historian, the antiquary, the philosopher, and the poet; 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 131 

with silken laces drawn through the lips thereof, and 
a white wand in his hand, completed the description 
of what we may suppose a respectable-looking man 
of the province and period. Being demanded concern- 
ing her first interview with this mysterious Thome 
Reid, she gave rather an affecting account of the dis- 
asters with which she was then afflicted, and a sense 
of which perhaps aided to conjure up the imaginary 
counsellor. She was walking between her own 
house and the yard of Monkcastle, driving her cows 
to the common pasture, and making heavy moan with 
herself, weeping bitterly for her cow that was dead, 
her husband and child that was sick of the land-ill 
(some contagious sickness of the time), while she 
herself was in a very infirm state, having lately borne 
a child. On this occasion, she met Thome Reid for 
the first time, who saluted her courteously, which she 
returned. " Sancta Maria, Bessie !" said the appari- 
tion ; " why must thou make such dole and weeping 
for any earthly thing?" — "Have I not reason for 
great sorrow," said she, " since our property is going 
to destruction, my husband is on the point of death, 
my baby will not live, and I am myself at a weak 
point 1 Have I not cause to have a sore heart V — 
" Bessie," answered the spirit, " thou hast displeased 
God in asking something that thou should not, and I 
counsel you to amend your fault. I tell thee, thy 
child shall die ere thou get home ; thy two sheep shall 
also die, but thy husband shall recover, and be as well 
and feir as ever he was." The good woman was 
something comforted to hear that her husband was 
to be spared in such her general calamity, but was 
rather alarmed to see her ghostly counsellor pass from 
her, and disappear through a hole in the garden wall, 
seemingly too narrow to admit of any living person 
passing though it. Another time he met her at the 
Thorn of Dawmstarnik, and showed his ultimate 
purpose, by offering her plenty of every thing if she 
would but deny Christendom," and the faith she took 



132 LETTERS ON 

at the font-stone. She answered, that rather than do 
that she would be torn at horses' heels, but that she 
would be conformable to his advice in less matters. 
He parted with her in some displeasure. Shortly 
afterward he appeared in her own house, about noon, 
which was at the time occupied by her husband and 
three tailors. But neither Andro Jak nor the three 
tailors were sensible of the presence of the phantom 
warrior who was slain at Pinkie ; so that without at- 
tracting their observation, he led out the goodwife to 
the end of the house near the kiln. Here he showed 
her a company of eight women and four men. The 
women were busked in their plaids, and very seemly. 
The strangers saluted her, and said, " Welcome, 
Bessie; wilt thou go with us?" But Bessie was 
silent, as Thome Reid had previously recommended. 
After this she saw their lips move, but did not under- 
stand what they said ; and in a short time they re- 
moved from thence with a hideous ugly howling 
sound, like that of a hurricane. Thome Reid then 
acquainted her that these were the good wights (fai- 
ries) dwelling in the court of Elfland, who came to 
invite her to go thither with them. Bessie answered, 
that before she went that road, it would require some 
consideration. Thome answered, "Seest thou not 
me both meat worth, clothes worth, and well enough 
in person I" and engage she should be easier than 
ever she was. But, she replied, she dwelt with her 
husband and children, and would not leave them ; to 
which Thome Reid replied, in very ill-humour, that 
if such were her sentiments, she would get little 
good of him. 

Although they thus diasgreed on the principal object 
of Thome Reid's visits, Bessie Dunlop affirmed he 
continued to come to her frequently, and assist her 
with his counsel ; and that if any one consulted her 
about the ailments of human beings or of cattle, or 
the recovery of things lost or stolen, she was, by the 
advice of Thome Reid, always able to answer the 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 133 

querists. She was also taught by her (literally ghostly) 
adviser, how to watch the operation of the ointments 
he gave her, and to presage from them the recovery or 
death of the patient. She said that Thome gave her 
herbs with his own hand, with which she cured John 
Jack's bairn and Wilson's of the Townhead. She 
also was helpful to a waiting-woman of the young 
Lady Stanlie, daughter of the Lady Johnstone, whose 
disease, according to the opinion of the infallible 
Thome Reid, was " a cauld blood that came about 
her heart," and frequently caused her to swoon away. 
For this Thome mixed a remedy as generous as the 
Balm of Gilead itself. It was composed of the most 
potent ale, concocted with spices and a little white 
sugar, to be drunk every morning before taking food. 
For these prescriptions Bessie Dunlop's fee was a 
peck of meal and some cheese. The young woman 
recovered. But the poor old Lady Kilbowie could 
get no help for her leg, which had been crooked for 
years ; for Thome Reid said the marrow of the limb 
was perished and the blood benumbed, so that she 
would never recover, and if she sought farther assist- 
ance, it would be the worse for her. These opinions 
indicate common sense and prudence at least, whether 
we consider them as originating with the umquhile 
Thome Reid, or with the culprit whom he patronised. 
The judgments given in the case of stolen goods 
were also well chosen ; for though they seldom led 
to recovering the property, they generally alleged 
such satisfactory reasons for its not being found, as 
effectually to cover the credit of the prophetess. Thus 
Hugh Scott's cloak could not be returned, because 
the thieves had gained time to make it into a kirtle. 
James Jamieson and James Baird would, by her advice, 
have recovered their plough-irons which had been 
stolen, had it not been the will of fate that William 
Dougal, sheriff's officer, one of the parties searching 
for them, should accept a bribe of three pounds not 
to find them. In short, although she lost a lace which 
M 



134 LETTERS ON 

Thome Reid gave her out of his own hand, which, 
tied round women in childbirth, had the power of 
helping their delivery, Bessie Dunlop's profession of 
a wise woman seems to have flourished indifferently 
well till it drew the evil eye of the law upon her. 

More minutely pressed upon the subject of her 
familiar, she said she had never known him while 
among the living, but was aware that the person so 
calling himself was one who had, in his lifetime, ac- 
tually been known in middle earth as Thome Reid, 
officer to the Laird of Blair, and who died at Pinkie. 
Of this she was made certain, because he sent her on 
errands to his son, who had succeeded in his office, 
and to others, his relatives, whom he named, and 
commanded them to amend certain trespasses which 
he had done while alive, furnishing her with sure 
tokens by which they should know that it was he 
who had sent her. One of these errands was some- 
what remarkable. She was to remind a neighbour 
of some particular which she was to recall to his 
memory by the token, that Thome Reid and he had 
set out together to go to the battle which took place 
on the Black Saturday ; that the person to whom the 
message was sent, was inclined rather to move in a 
different direction, but that Thome Reid heartened 
him to pursue his journey, and brought him to the 
Kirk of Dairy, where he bought a parcel of figs, and 
made a present of them to his companion, tying them 
in his handkerchief; after which they kept company 
till they came to the field upon the fatal Black 
Saturday, as the battle of Pinkie was long called. 

Of Thome's other habits, she said that he always 
behaved with the strictest propriety, only that he 
pressed her to go to Elfland with him, and took hold 
of her apron as if to pull her along. Again, she said 
she had seen him in public places, both in the church- 
yard at Dairy, and on the street of Edinburgh, where 
he walked about among other people, and handled 
goods that were exposed to sale, without attracting 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 135 

# 

any notice. She herself did not then speak to him ; 
for it was his command that, upon such occasions, 
she should never address him, unless he spoke first 
to her. In his theological opinions, Mr. Reid ap- 
peared to lean to the Church of Rome, which, indeed, 
was most indulgent to the fairy folk. He said that 
the new law, i. e. the Reformation, was not good, and 
that the old faith should return again, but not exactl; 
as it had been before. Being questioned why this 
visionary sage attached himself to her more than 
to others, the accused person replied, that when she 
was confined in childbirth of one of her boys, a stout 
woman came into her hut, and sat down on a bench 
by her bed, like a mere earthly gossip ; that she de- 
manded a drink, and was accommodated accordingly; 
and thereafter told the invalid that the child should 
die, but that her husband, who was then ailing, should 
recover. This visit seems to have been previous to 
her meeting Thome Reid near Monkcastle garden, 
for that worthy explained to her that her stout 
visitant was Queen of Fairies, and that he had since 
attended her by the express command of that lady, 
his queen and mistress. This reminds us of the ex- 
treme doting attachment which the Queen of the 
Fairies is represented to have taken for Dapper, in 
the Alchymist. Thome Reid attended her, it would 
seem, on being summoned thrice, and appeared to 
her very often within four years. He often requested 
her to go with him on his return to fairyland, and 
when she refused, he shook his head, and said she 
would repent it. 

If the delicacy of the reader's imagination be a 
little hurt at imagining the elegant Titania in the 
disguise of a stout woman, a heavy burden for a 
clumsy bench, drinking what Christopher Sly would 
have called very sufficient small-beer with a peasant's 
wife, the following description of the fairy host may 
come more near the idea he has formed of that invi- 
sible company. Bessie Dunlop declared, that as she 



136 LETTERS ON 

went to tether her nag by the side of Restalrig Loch 
(Lochend, near the eastern port of Edinburgh), she 
heard a tremendous sound of a body of riders rush- 
ing past her, with such a noise as if heaven and earth 
would come together. That the sound swept past 
her, and seemed to rush into the lake with a hideous 
rumbling noise. All this while she saw nothing; 
but Thome Reid showed her that the noise was oc- 
casioned by the wights, who were performing one 
of their cavalcades upon earth. 

The intervention of Thome Reid, as a partner in 
her trade of petty sorcery, did not avail poor Bessie 
Dunlop, although his affection to her was apparently 
entirely Platonic, — the greatest familiarity on which 
he ventured was taking hold of her gown as he 
pressed her to go with him to Elfland. Neither did 
it avail her, that the petty sorcery which she practised 
was directed to venial or even beneficial purposes. 
The sad words on the margin of the record, " Con- 
vict and burned," sufficiently express the tragic con- 
clusion of a curious tale. 

Alison Pearson, in Byrehill, was, 28th May, 1588, 
tried for invocation of the spirits of the Devil, spe- 
cially in the vision of one Mr. William Sympson, 
her cousin, and her mother's brother's son, who, she 
affirmed, was a great scholar and doctor of medicine, 
dealing with charms, and abusing the ignorant peo- 
ple. Against this poor woman, her own confession, 
as in the case of Bessie Dunle^ was the principal 
evidence. 

As Bessie Dunlop had Thome Hfeid, Alison Pearson 
had also a familiar in the com of Elfland. This 
was her relative William Symplon aforesaid, born 
in Stirling, whose father was king's smith in that 
town. William had been taken away, she said, by 
a man of Egypt (a Gipsy), who carried him to Egypt 
along with him. That he remained there twelve 
years, and that his father died in the mean time, for 
opening a priest's book, and looking upon it. She 



DEM0N0L0GY AND WITCHCRAFT. 137 

declared that she had renewed her acquaintance with 
her kinsman, so soon as he returned. She farther 
confessed, that one day, as she passed through 
Grange Muir, she lay down, in a fit of sickness, and 
that a green man came to her, and said, if she would 
be faithful, he might do her good. In reply, she 
charged him, in the name of God, and by the law he 
lived upon, if he came for her soul's good, to tell his 
errand. On this the green man departed. But he 
afterward appeared to her, with many men and 
women with him; and, against her will, she was 
obliged to pass with them farther than she could tell, 
with piping, mirth, and good cheer ; also that she ac- 
companied them into Lothian, where she saw 
puncheons of wine, with tasses, or drinking cups. 
She declared, that when she told of these things, she 
was sorely tormented, and received a blow that took 
away the power of her left side, and left on it an 
ugly mark, which had no feeling. She also con- 
fessed that she had seen, before sunrise, the Good 
Neighbours make their salves with pans and fires. 
Sometimes, she said, they came in such fearful 
forms as frightened her very much. At other times 
they spoke her fair, and promised her that she should 
never want, if faithfu]", but if she told of them and 
their doings, they threatened to martyr her. She 
also boasted of her favour with the Queen of Elfland, 
and the good friends c she had at that court, notwith- 
standing that she v ~s sometimes in disgrace there, 
and had not seen queen for seven years. She 
said, William Syn json is with the fairies, and that 
he lets her know v ' 311 they are coming ; and that he 
taught her what remedies to use, and how to apply 
them. She declared that when a whirlwind blew, 
the fairies were commonly there, and that her cousin 
Sympson confessed that every year the tithe of them 
were taken away to Hell. The celebrated Patrick 
Adamson, an excellent divine, and accomplished 
scholar, created by James VI. Archbishop of St. 
M 2 



138 LETTERS ON 

Andrews, swallowed the prescriptions of this poor 
hypochondriac, with good faith and will, eating a 
stewed fowl, and drinking out at two draughts a 
quart of claret, medicated with the drugs she recom- 
mended. According to the belief of the time, this 
Alison Pearson transferred the bishop's indisposition 
from himself to a white palfrey, which died in con- 
sequence. There is a very severe libel on him for 
this and other things unbecoming his order, with 
which he was charged, and from which we learn that 
Lethington and Buccleuch were seen by dame Pear- 
son in the Fairyland.* This poor woman's kinsman, 
Sympson, did not give better shelter to her than 
Thome Reid had done to her predecessor. The 
margin of the court book again bears the melancholy 
and brief record, " Convicta et combusta." 

The two poor women last mentioned are the more 
to be pitied, as, whether enthusiasts or impostors, 
they practised their supposed art exclusively for the 
advantage of mankind. The following extraordinary 
detail involves persons of far higher quality, and who 
sought to familiars for more baneful purposes. 

Katharine Munro, Lady Fowlis, by birth Katharine 
Ross of Balnagowan, of high rank, both by her own 
family and that of her husband, who was the fifteenth 
Baron of Fowlis, and chief of the warlike clan of 
Munro, had a step-mother's quarrel with Robert 
Munro, eldest son of her husband, which she grati- 
fied by forming a scheme for compassing his death 
by unlawful arts. Her proposed advantage in this 
was, that the widow of Robert, when he was thus 
removed, should marry with her brother George 
Ross of Balnagowan ; and for this purpose, her sis- 
ter-in-law, the present Lady Balnagowan, was also 
to be removed. Lady Fowlis, if the indictment had 
a syllable of truth, carried on her practices with the 
least possible disguise. She assembled persons of 

* See Scottish Poems, edited by John G. Dalzell, p. 321. 



DEMONOLOGT AND WITCHCRAFT. 139 

the lowest order, stamped with an infamous celebrity 
as witches ; and besides making pictures or models 
in clay, by which they hoped to bewitch Robert Munro 
and Lady Balnagowan, they brewed, upon one occa- 
sion, poison so strong, that a page tasting of it im- 
mediaiely took sickness. Another earthern jar 
(Scottice, pig,) of the same deleterious liquor was 
prepared by the Lady Fowlis, and sent with her own 
nurse, for the purpose of administering it to Robert 
Munro. The messenger having stumbled in the 
dark, broke the jar, and a rank grass grew on the spot 
where it fell, which sheep and cattle abhorred to 
touch; but the nurse, having less sense than the 
brute beasts, and tasting of the liquor which had 
been spilled, presently died. What is more to our 
present purpose, Lady Fowlis made use of the ar- 
tillery of Elfland, in order to destroy her step-son and 
sister-in-law. Laskie Loncart, one of the assistant 
hags, produced two of what the common people call 
elf-arrow-heads, being, in fact, the points of flint used 
for arming the ends of arrow shafts in the most an- 
cient times, but accounted by the superstitious the 
weapons by which the faries were wont to destroy 
both man and beast. The pictures of the intended 
victims were then set up at the north end of the apart- 
ment, and Christian Ross Malcolmson, an assistant 
hag, shot two shafts at the image of Lady Balnago- 
wan, and three against the picture of Robert Munro, 
by which shots they were broken, and Lady Fowlis 
commanded new figures to be modelled. Many 
similar acts of witchcraft, and of preparing poisons, 
were alleged against Lady Fowlis. 

Her son-in-law, Hector Munro, one of his step- 
mother's prosecutors, was, for reasons of his own, 
active in a similar conspiracy against the life of his 
own brother. The rites that he practised were of 
an uncouth, barbarous, and unusual nature. Hector 
being taken ill, consulted on his case some of the 
witches or soothsayers, to whom this family appears 



140 LETTERS ON 

to have been partial. The answer was unanimous 
that he must die unless the principal man of his 
blood should suffer death in his stead. It was agreed 
that the vicarious substitute for Hector must mean 
George Munro, brother to him by the half-blood (the 
son of the Catharine, Lady Fowlis, before comme- 
morated). Hector sent at least seven messengers 
for this young man, refusing to receive any of his 
other friends, till he saw the substitute whom he des- 
tined to take his place in the grave. When George 
at length arrived, Hector, by advice of a notorious 
witch, called Marion Maclngarach, and of his own 
foster mother, Christian Neil Dalyell, received him 
with peculiar coldness and restraint. He did not 
speak for the space of an hour, till his brother broke 
silence, and asked " How he did V Hector replied, 
" That he was the better George had come to visit 
him," and relapsed into silence, which seemed sin- 
gular when compared with the anxiety he had dis- 
played to see his brother; but it was, it seems, a 
necessary part of the spell. After midnight, the 
sorceress Marion Maclngarach, the chief priestess, 
or Nicneven, of the company, went forth with her 
accomplices, carrying spades with them. They then 
proceeded to dig a grave, not far from the sea-side, 
upon a piece of land, which formed the boundary 
between two proprietors. The grave was made as 
nearly as possible to the size of their patient Hector 
Munro, the earth dug out of the grave being laid 
aside for the time. After ascertaining that the ope- 
ration of the charm on George Munro, the destined 
victim, should be suspended for a time, to avoid sus- 
picion, the conspirators proceeded to work their spell 
in a singular, impressive, and, I believe, unique man- 
ner. The time being January, 1588, the patient, 
Hector Munro, was borne forth in a pair of blankets, 
accompanied by all who were intrusted with the 
secret, who were warned to be strictly silent, till the 
chief sorceress should have received her information 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 141 

from the angel whom they served. Hector Munro 
was carried to his grave, and laid therein, the earth 
being filled in on him, and the grave secured with 
stakes, as at a real funeral. Marion Maclngarach, 
the Hecate of the night, then sat down by the grave, 
while Christian Neil Dalyell, the foster mother, ran 
the breadth of about nine ridges distant, leading a 
boy in her hand, and, coming again to the grave 
where Hector Munro was interred alive, demanded 
of the witch which victim she would choose, who 
replied, that she chose Hector to live, and George 
to die in his stead. This form of incantation was 
thrice repeated ere Mr. Hector was removed from his 
chilling bed in a January grave, and carried home, all 
remaining mute as before. The consequence of a 
process, which seems ill-adapted to produce the 
former effect, was, that Hector Munro recovered, and, 
after the intervention of twelve months, George 
Munro, his brother, died. Hector took the principal 
witch into high favour, made her keeper of his sheep, 
and evaded, it is said, to present her to trial, when 
charged at Aberdeen to produce her. Though one 
or two inferior persons suffered death on account of 
the sorceries practised in the house of Fowlis, the 
Lady Katharine, and her step-son Hector, had both 
the unusual good fortune to be found not guilty. Mr. 
Pitcairn remarks, that the juries being composed of 
subordinate persons, not suitable to the rank or 
family of the person tried, has all the appearance of 
having been packed on purpose for acquittal. It 
might also, in some interval of good sense, creep into 
the heads of Hector Munro's assize, that the enchant- 
ment being performed in January, 1588, and the de- 
ceased being only taken ill of his fatal disease in 
April, 1590, the distance between the events might 
seem too great to admit the former being regarded as 
the cause of the latter.* 

* Pitcairn's Trials, vol. i. p. 191. 201. 



142 LETTERS ON 

Another instance of the skill of a sorcerer being 
traced to the instructions of the elves, is found in the 
confession of John Stewart, called a vagabond, but 
professing skill in palmestrie and jugglerie, and 
accused of having assisted Margaret Barclay or Dein, 
to sink or cast away a vessel belonging to her own 
good-brother. It being demanded of him by what 
means he professed himself to have knowledge of 
things to come, the said John confessed, that, the 
space of twenty-six years ago, he being travelling 
on All-Hallo w-even night, between the towns of 
Monygoif (so spelled) and Clary, in Galway, he met 
with the King of the Fairies and his company, and 
that the King of the Fairies gave him a stroke witli 
a white rod over the forehead, which took from him 
the power of speech, and the use of one eye, which 
he wanted for the space of three years. He declared, 
that the use of speech and eyesight was restored to 
him by the King of Fairies and his company, on an 
Hallow-e'en night, at the town of Dublin, in Ireland, 
and that since that time, he had joined these people 
every Saturday at seven o'clock, and remained with 
them all the night ; also, that they met every Hallow- 
tide, sometimes on Lanark Hill (Tintock, perhaps), 
sometimes on Kilmaur's Hill, and that he was then 
taught by them. He pointed out the spot of his 
forehead, en which, he said, the King of the Fairies 
struck him with a white rod, whereupon, the prisoner 
being blindfolded, they pricked the spot with a large 
pin, whereof he expressed no sense or feeling. He 
made the usual declaration, that he had seen many 
persons at the Court of Fairy, whose names he 
rehearsed particularly, and declared that all such 
persons as are taken away by sudden death go with 
the King of Elfland. With this man's evidence we 
have at present no more to do, though we may revert 
to the execrable proceedings which then took place 
against this miserable juggler and the poor women 
who were accused of the same crime. At present it is 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 143 

quoted as another instance of a fortune-teller referring 
to Elfland as the source of his knowledge. 

At Auldeame, a parish and burgh of Barony, in the 
county of Nairne, the epidemic terror of witches 
seems to have gone very far. The confession of a 
woman called fsobel Gowdie, of date April, 1662, 
implicates, as usual, the Court of Fairy, and blends 
the operations of witchcraft with the facilities afford- 
ed by the fairies. These need be the less insisted 
upon in this place, as the arch fiend, and not the elves, 
had the immediate agency in the abominations which 
she narrates. Yet she had been, she said, in the 
Dounie Hills, and got meat there from the Queen of 
Fairies, more than she could eat. She added, that 
the queen is bravely clothed in white linen, and in 
white and brown cloth, — that the King of Fairy is a 
brave man; and there were elf-bulls roaring and 
skoilling at the entrance of their palace, which fright- 
ened her much. On another occasion this frank 
penitent confesses her presence at a rendezvous of 
witches, Lammas 1659, where, after they had rambled 
through the country in different shapes, of cats, 
hares, and the like, eating, drinking, and wasting the 
goods of their neighbours, into whose houses they 
could penetrate, they at length came to the Dounie 
Hills, where the mountain opened to receive them, 
and they entered a fair big room, as bright as day. 
At the entrance ramped and roared the large fairy 
bulls, which always alarmed Isobel Gowdie. These 
animals are probably the water bulls, famous both in 
Scottish and Irish tradition, which are not supposed 
to be themselves altogether canny, or safe to have 
concern with. In their caverns the fairies manufac- 
tured those elf-arrow-heads, with which the witches 
and they wrought so much evil. The elves and the 
arch-fiend laboured jointly at this task, the former 
forming and sharpening the dart from the rough flint, 
and the latter perfecting and finishing, or, as it is 
called, (lighting it. Then came the sport of the 



144 BETTERS ON 

meeting. The witches bestrode either com straws, 
bean stalks, or rushes, and calling "Horse and 
Hattock, in the Devil's name !" which is the elfin 
signal for mounting, they flew wherever they listed. 
If the little whirlwind which accompanies their 
transportation passed any mortal, who neglected to 
bless himself, all such fell under the witches' power, 
and they acquired the right of shooting at him. The 
penitent prisoner gives the names of many whom 
she and her sisters had so slain, the death for which 
she was most sorry being that of William Brown, in 
the Milntown of Mains. A shaft was also aimed at 
the Reverend Harrie Forbes, a minister who was 
present at the examination of Isobel, the confessing 
party. The arrow fell short, and the witch would 
have taken aim again, but her master forbade her, 
saying, the reverend gentleman's life was not subject 
to their power. To this ^strange and very particular 
confession we shall have occasion to recur, when 
witchcraft is the more immediate subject. What is 
above narrated marks the manner in which the 
belief in that crime was blended with the fairy su- 
perstition. 

To proceed to more modern instances of persons 
supposed to have fallen under the power of the fairy 
race, we must not forget the Rev. Robert Kirke, 
minister of the Gospel, the first translator of the 
Psalms into Gaelic verse. He was, in the end of 
the seventeenth century, successively minister of the 
Highland parishes of Balquidder and Aberfoyle, 
lying in the most romantic district of Perthshire, and 
within the Highland line. These beautiful and wild 
regions, comprehending so many lakes, rocks, seques- 
tered valleys, and dim copse woods, are not even yet 
quite abandoned by the fairies, who have resolutely 
maintained secure footing in a region so well suited 
for their residence. Indeed, so much was this the 
case formerly, that Mr. Kirke, while in his latter 
charge of Aberfoyle, found materials for collecting 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 145 

and compiling his Essay on the " Subterranean and 
for the most part Invisible People, heretofore going 
under the name of Elves, Fawnes, and Fairies, or 
the like.' 5 * In this discourse, the author, " with un- 
doubting mind," describes the fairy race as a sort of 
astral spirits, of a kind between humanity and angels 
— says that they have children, nurses, marriages, 
deaths, and burials, like mortals in appearance ; that, 
in some respect, they represent mortal men, and 
that individual apparitions, or double -men, are found 
among them, corresponding with mortals existing 
on earth. Mr. Kirke accuses them of stealing the 
milk from the cows, and of carrying away what is 
more material, the women in pregnancy, and new- 
born children from their nurses. The remedy is 
easy in both cases. The milk cannot be stolen, if 
the mouth of the calf, before he is permitted to suck, 
be rubbed with a certain balsam, very easily come 
by ; and the woman in travail is safe, if a piece of 
cold iron is put into the bed. Mr. Kirke accounts 
for this, by informing us, that the great northern 
mines of iron, lying adjacent to the place of eternal 
punishment, have a savour odious to these " fascinat- 
ing creatures." They have, says the reverend 
author, what one would not expect, many light, toyish 
books (novels and plays, doubtless), others on Rosy- 
crucian subjects, and of an abstruse mystical cha- 
racter ; but they have no Bibles, or works of devotion. 
The essayist fails not to mention the elf-arrow-heads, 
which have something of the subtlety of thunder- 
bolts, and can mortally wound the vital parts, with- 
out breaking the skin. These wounds, he says, he 
has himself observed in beasts, and felt the fatal 
lacerations which he could not see. 

* The title continues,— " Among the Low Country Scots, as they are 
described by those who have the second sight, and now, to occasion 
farther inquiry, collected and compared by a circumspect inquirer 
residing among the Scottish-Irish (*. e. the Gael, or Highlanders) in 
Scotland." It was printed with the author's name in 1691, and re 
printed, Edinburgh, 1815, for Longman and Co. 
N. 



146 LETTERS ON 

It was by no means to be supposed that the elves, 
so jealous and irritable a race as to be incensed 
against those who spoke of them under their proper 
names, should be less than mortally offended at the 
temerity of the reverend author, who had pried so 
deeply into their mysteries, for the purpose of giving 
them to the public. Although, therefore, the learned 
divine's monument, with his name duly inscribed, is 
to be seen at the east end of the churchyard at Aber- 
foyle, yet those acquainted with his real history do 
not believe that he enjoys the natural repose of the 
tomb. His successor, the Rev. Dr. Grahame, has 
informed us of the general belief, that as Mr. Kirke 
was walking one evening in his night-gown upon a 
Dun-shi, or fairy mount, in the vicinity of the manse 
or parsonage, behold ! he sunk down in what seemed 
to be a fit of apoplexy, which the unenlightened took 
for death, while the more understanding knew it to 
be a swoon produced by the supernatural influence 
of the people whose precincts he had violated. After 
the ceremony of a seeming funeral, the form of the 
Rev. Robert Kirke appeared to a relation, and com- 
manded him to go to Grahame of Duchray, ancestor 
of the present General Grahame Stirling. " Say to 
Duchray, who is my cousin as well as your own, that 
I am not dead, but a captive in Fairy Land, and only 
one chance remains for my liberation. When the 
posthumous child, of which my wife has been deli- 
vered since my disappearance, shall be brought to 
baptism, I will appear in the room, when, if Duchray 
shall throw over my head the knife or dirk which he 
holds in his hand, I may be restored to society ; but if 
this opportunity is neglected, I am lost for ever." 
Duchray was apprised of what was to be done. The 
ceremony took place, and the apparition of Mr. Kirke 
was visibly seen while they were seated at table ; but 
Grahame of Duchray, in his astonishment, failed to 
perform the ceremony enjoined, and it is to be feared 
that Mr. Kirke still " drees his weird in fairy- 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 147 

land," the Elfin state declaring to him, as the 
Ocean to poor Falconer, who perished at sea, 
after having written his popular poem of the Ship- 
wreck, — 

"Thou bast proclaimed our power — be thou our prey !" 

Upon this subject the reader may consult a very 
entertaining little volume, called " Sketches of Perth- 
shire,"* by the Rev. Dr. Grahame of Aberfoyle. 
The terrible visitation of fairy vengeance which has 
lighted upon Mr. Kirke has not intimidated his suc- 
cessor, an excellent man, and good, antiquary, from 
affording us some curious information on fairy super- 
stition. He tells us that these capricious elves are 
chiefly dangerous on a Friday, when, as the day of 
the Crucifixion, evil spirits have most power, and 
mentions their displeasure at any one who assumes 
their accustomed livery of green, a colour fatal to 
several families in Scotland, to the whole race of the 
gallant Grahames in particular ; insomuch, that we 
have heard that in battle a Grahame is generally shot 
through the green check of his plaid ; moreover, that 
a veteran sportsman of the name, having come by a 
bad fall, he thought it sufficient to account for it, that 
he had a piece of green whip-cord to complete the 
lash of his hunting-whip. I remember, also, that 
my late amiable friend, Jame? Grahame, author of 
" The Sabbath," would not break through this ancient 
prejudice of his clan, but had his library table 
covered with blue or black cloth, rather than use 
the fated colour commonly employed on such oc- 
casions. 

To return from the Perthshire fairies, I may quote 
a story of a nature somewhat similar to that of Mas 
Robert Kirke. The life of the excellent person who 
told it was, for the benefit of her friends and the poor, 

* Edinburgh, 1812. 



148 LETTERS ON 

protracted to an unusual duration; so I conceive that 
this adventure, which took place in her childhood, 
might happen before the middle of the last century. 
She was residing with some relations, near the small 
seaport town of "North Berwick, when the place and 
its vicinity were alarmed by the following story: — 

An industrious man, a weaver, in the little town, 
was married to a beautiful woman, who, after bearing 
two or three children, was so unfortunate as to die 
during the birth of a fourth child. The infant was 
saved, but the mother had expired in convulsions ; and 
as she was much disfigured after death, it became an 
opinion among her gossips, that, from some neglect 
of those who ought to have watched the sick woman, 
she must have been carried off by the elves, and this 
ghastly corpse substituted in the place of the body. 
The widower paid little attention to these rumours, 
and, after bitterly lamenting his wife for a year of 
mourning, began to think on the prudence of form- 
ing a new marriage, which, to a poor artisan with so 
young a family, and without the assistance of a 
housewife, was almost a matter of necessity. He 
readily fomid a neighbour with whose good looks hS 
was satisfied, while her character for temper seemed 
to warrant her good usage of his children. He pro- 
posed himself and was accepted, and carried the 
names of the parties to the clergyman (called, I be- 
lieve Mr. Matthew Reid) for the due proclamation of 
bans. As the man had really loved his late partner, 
it is likely that this proposed decisive alteration of 
his condition brought back many reflections concern- 
ing the period of their union, and with these recalled 
the extraordinary rumours which were afloat at the 
time of her decease, so that the whole forced upon 
him the following lively dream. As he lay in his bed, 
awake as he thought, he beheld, at the ghostly hour 
of midnight, the figure of a female dressed in white, 
who entered his hut, stood by the side of his bed, and 
appeared to him the very likeness of his late wife. 



DEMOXOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 149 

He conjured her to speak, and with astonishment 
heard her say, like the minister of Aberfoyle, that 
she was not dead, but the unwilling captive of the 
Good Neighbours. Like Mr. Kirke, too, she told 
him, that if all the love which he once had for 
her was not entirely gone, an opportunity still 
remained of recovering her, or winning her back, 
as it was usually termed, from the comfortless 
realms of Elfland. She charged him, on a certain 
day of the ensuing week, that he should convene 
the most respectable housekeepers in the town, with 
the clergyman at their head, and should disinter 
the coffin in which she was supposed to have been 
buried. " The clergyman is to recite certain pray- 
ers, upon which," said the apparition, " I will start 
from the coffin, and fly with great speed round the 
church, and you must have the fleetest runner of 
the parish (naming a man famed for swiftness) to 
pursue me, and such a one, the smith, renowned for 
his strength, to hold me fast, after I am overtaken ; 
and in that case I shall, by the prayers of the church, 
and the efforts of my loving husband and neighbours, 
again recover my station in human society." In 
the morning, the poor widower was distressed with 
the recollection of his dream, but ashamed and puz- 
zled, took no measures in consequence. A second 
night, as is not very surprising, the visitation was 
again repeated. On the third night she appeared 
with a sorrowful and displeased countenance, up- 
braided him with want of love and affection, and 
conjured him, for the last time, to attend to her in- 
structions, which, if he now neglected, she would 
never have power to visit earth or communicate with 
him again. In order to convince him there was no 
delusion, he " saw in his dream" that she took up 
the nursling at whose birth she had died, and gave 
it suck ; she spilled also a drop or two of her milk 
on the poor man's bed-clothes, as if to assure him 
Of the reality of the vision. 
N2 



150 LETTERS ON 

The next morning the terrified widower carried a 
statement of his perplexity to Mr. Matthew Re id, the 
clergyman. This reverend person, besides being an 
excellent divine in other respects, was at the same 
time a man of sagacity, who understood the human 
passions. He did not attempt to combat the reality 
of the vision which had thrown his parishioner into 
this tribulation, but he contended it could be only an 
illusion of the devil. He explained to the widower, 
that no created being could have the right or power 
to imprison or detain the soul of a Christian — con- 
jured him not to believe that his wife was otherwise 
disposed of than according to God's pleasure — as- 
sured him that Protestant doctrine utterly denies the 
existence of any middle state in the world to come 
— and explained to him that he, as a clergyman of 
the Church of Scotland, neither could nor dared au- 
thorize opening graves, or using the intervention of 
prayer to sanction rites of a suspicious character. 
The poor man, confounded and perplexed by vari- 
ous feelings, asked his pastor what he should do. 
" I will give you my best advice," said the clergy- 
man. " Get your new bride's consent to be married 
to-morrow, or to-day, if you can ; I will take it on 
me to dispense with the rest of the bans, or proclaim 
them three times in one day. You will have a new 
wife, and if you think of the former, it will be only 
as of one from whom death has separated you, and 
for whom you may have thoughts of affection and 
sorrow, but as a saint in Heaven, and not as a pri- 
soner in Elfland." The advice was taken, and the 
perplexed widower had no more visitations from his 
former spouse. 

An instance, perhaps the latest which has been 
made public, of communication with the Restless 
People — (a more proper epithet than that of Daoine 
Shi, or Men of Peace, as they are called in Gaelic) 
— came under Pennant's notice, so late as during 
that observant traveller's tour in 1769. Being per- 



HEMOXOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 151 

haps the latest news from the invisible common- 
wealth, we give the tourist's own words. 

" A poor visionary who had been working in his 
cabbage garden (in Breadalbane), imagined that he 
was raised suddenly up into the air, and conveyed 
over a wall into an adjacent corn-field ; that he found 
himself surrounded by a crowd of men and women, 
many of whom he knew to have been dead for some 
years, and who appeared to him skimming over the 
tops of the unbending corn, and mingling together 
like bees going to hive ; that they spoke an unknown 
language, and with a hollow sound ; that they very 
roughly pushed him to and fro, but on his uttering 
the name of God, all vanished but a female sprite, 
who, seizing him by the shoulder, obliged him to pro- 
mise an assignation, at that very hour that day seven- 
night; that he then found his hair was all tied in 
double knots (well known by the name of elf-locks), 
and that he had almost lost his speech ; that he kept 
his word with the spectre, whom he soon saw float- 
ing through the air towards him ; that he spoke to 
her, but she told him she was at that time in too 
much haste to attend to him, but bid him go away 
and no harm should befall him, and so the affair 
rested when I left the country. But it is incredible 
the mischief of these cegri somnia did in the neigh- 
bourhood. The friends and neighbours of the de- 
ceased, whom the old dreamer had named, were in 
the utmost anxiety at finding them in such bad com- 
pany in the other world ; the almost extinct belief 
of the old idle tales began to gain ground, and the 
good minister will have many aweary discourse and 
exhortation before he can eradicate the absurd ideas 
this idle story has revived."* 

It is scarcely necessary to add, that this compara- 
tively recent tale is just the counterpart of the story 
of Bessie Dunlop, Alison Pearson, and of the Irish 

* Pennant's Tour in Scotland, vol. i. p. lit). 



152 LETTERS ON 

butler, who was so nearly carried off, all of whom 
found in Elfland some friend formerly of middle 
earth, who attached themselves to the child of hu- 
manity, and who endeavoured to protect a fellow- 
mortal against their less philanthropic companions. 
These instances may tend to show how the fairy 
superstition, which, in its general sense of worship- 
ping the Dii Campestres, was much the older of the 
two, came to bear upon, and have connexion with, 
that horrid belief in witchcraft, which cost so many 
innocent persons, and crazy impostors, their lives, 
for the supposed commission* of impossible crimes. 
In the next chapter, I propose to trace how the gene- 
ral disbelief in the fairy creed began to take place, 
and gradually brought into discredit the supposed 
fears of witchcraft, which afforded pretext for such 
cruel practical consequences. 



LETTER VI. 






Immediate Effect of Christanity on Articles of Popular Superstition- 
Chaucer's Account of the Roman Catholic Priests banishing the 
Fairies — Bishop Corbett imputes the same Effect to the Reformation 
— His Verses on that Subject— His Iter Septentrionale— Robin Good- 
fellow, and other Superstitions mentioned by Reginald Scot — Cha- 
racter of the English Fairies — The Tradition had become obsolete in 
that Author's Time — That of Witches remained in Vigour — But 
impugned by various Authors after the Reformation, as Wierus, 
Naudoeus, Scot, and others — Demonology defended by Bodinus, 
Remigius, &c. — Their mutual Abuse of each other — Imperfection of 
Physical Science at this Period, and the Predominance of Mysticism 
in that Department. 

Although the influence of the Christian religion 
was not introduced to the nations of Europe with 
such radiance as to dispel at once those clouds of 
superstition which continued to obscure the under- 
standing of hasty and ill-instructed converts, there 
can be no doubt that its immediate operation went 



DEMOXOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 153 

to modify the erroneous and extravagant articles of 
credulity, which lingered behind the old Pagan faith, 
and which gave way before it in proportion as its 
light became more pure and refined from the devices 
of men. 

The poet Chaucer, indeed, pays the Church of 
Rome, with its monks and preaching friars, the com- 
pliment of having, at an early period, expelled from 
the land all spirits of an inferior and less holy cha- 
racter. The verses are curious as well as picturesque, 
and may go some length to establish the existence of 
doubts concerning the general belief in faries among 
the well instructed in the time of Edward III. 

The fairies of whom the bard of Woodstock talks, 
are, it will be observed, the ancient Celtic breed, 
and he seems to refer for the authorities of his 
tale to Bretagne, or Armorica, a genuine Celtic 
colony. 

"In old time of the King Artour, 
Of which that Breions~speken great honour, 
All was this land fulfilled of faerie ; 
The Elf queen, with her joly company, 
Danced full oft in many a grene mead." 
This was the old opinion, as I rede — 
I speake of many hundred years ago, 
But now can no man see no elves mo. 
For now the great charity and prayers 
Of limitours,* and other holy freres, 
That searchen every land and every stream, 
As thick as motes in the sunne-beam, 
Blessing halls, chambers, kitchenes, and boures, 
Cities and burghes, castles high and towers, 
Thropes and barnes, sheep- pens and dairies, 
This maketh that there ben no fairies. 
For there as wont to walken was an elf, 
There walketh now the limitour himself, 
In under nichtes and irmorwenings, 
And saith his mattins and his holy things, - 
As he goeth in his limitation. 
Women may now go safely up and doun ; 
In every bush, and under every tree, 
There is no other incubns than he, 
And he ne will don them no dishonour. 

* Friars limited to beg within a certain district- 
Wife cf Bath's Tale. 



154 LETTERS ON 

When we see the opinion which Chaucer has ex- 
pressed of the regular clergy of his time, in some 
of his other tales, we are tempted to suspect some 
mixture of irony in the compliment, which ascribes 
the exile of the fairies, with which the land was 
" fulfilled," in King Arthur's time, to the warmth and 
zeal of the devotion of the limitary friars. Indivi- 
dual instances of skepticism there might exist among 
scholars, but a more modern poet, with a vein of 
humour not unworthy of Geoffrey himself, has with 
greater probability delayed the final banishment of 
the fairies from England, that is, from popular faith, 
till the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and has represented 
their expulsion as a consequence of the change of 
religion. Two or three verses of this lively satire 
may be very well worth the reader's notice, who 
must, at the same time, be informed, that the author, 
Dr. Corbett, was nothing less than the Bishop of 
Oxford and Norwich, in the beginning of the 17th 
century. The poem is named, "A proper new 
Ballad, entitled the Fairies' Farewell, to be sung or 
whistled to the tune of the Meadow Brow, by the 
learned; by the unlearned, to the tune of For- 
tune." — 

"Farewell, rewards and fairies, 

Good housewives now may say, 
For now foul slute in dairies 

Do fare as well as they ; 
And though they sweep their hearths no less 

Than maids were wont to do, 
Yet who of late for cleanliness 

Finds sixpence in her shoe ? 

" Lament, lament, old abbies, 

The fairies' lost command; 
They did but change priests' babies, 

But some have changed your land ; 
And all your children sprung from hence 

Are now grown Puritans, 
Who live as changelings ever since 

For love of your domains. 

" At morning and at evening both, 
You merry were and glad, 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 155 

So little care of sleep and sloth 

Those pretty ladies had. 
When Torn came home from labour, 

Or Cis to milking rose, 
Then merrily, merrily went their tabor, 

And merrily went their toes. 

11 Witness, those rings and roundelays 

Of theirs, which yet remain, 
Were footed in Queen Mary's days, 

On many a grassy plain ; 
But since of late Elizabeth, 

And later, James came in, 
They never danced on any heatb 

As when the time hath bin. 

" By which we note, the fairies 

Were of the old profession, 
Their songs were Ave Maries, . 

Their dances were procession. 
But now, alas ! they all are dead, 

Or gone beyond the seas ; 
Or farther for religion fled, 

Or else they take their ease." 

The remaining part of the poem is dedicated to 
the praise and glory of old William Chourne, of Staf- 
fordshire, who remained a true and staunch evidence 
in behalf of the departed elves, and kept, much it 
would seem to the amusement of the witty bishop, 
an inexhaustible record of their pranks and feats, 
whence the concluding verse. 

"To William all give audience 
Arid pray ye for his noddle, 
For all the fairies' evidence, 
Were lost if that were addle."* 

This William Chourne appears to have attended 
Dr. Corbett's party on the iter septentrionale, two of 
which were, and two desired to be, doctors ;" but 
whether William was guide, friend, or domestic, 
seems uncertain. The travellers lose themselves in 
the mazes of Chorley Forest, on their way to Bos- 
worth, and their route becomes so confused, that they 
return on their steps, and labour 

* Corbett's Poem's, edited by Octavius Gilchrist, p. 213 



156 LETTERS ON 

"As in a conjuror's circle— William found 
A mean for our deliverance, — * Turn your cloaks/ 
Quoth he, ' for Puck is busy in these oaks ; 
If ever you at Bosworth would be found, 
Then turn your cloaks, for this is fairy ground/ 
But ere this witchcraft was perform'd, we meet 
A very man who had no cloven feet. 
Though William, still of little faith, has doubt, 
'Tis Robin, or some sprite that walks about. 

* Strike him,' quoth he, ' and it will turn to air — 

Cross yourselves thrice and strike it.' — ' Strike that dare/ 

Thought I, ' for sure this massy forester, 

In strokes will prove the better conjuror.' 

But 't was a gentle keeper, one that knew 

Humanity and manners, where they grew, 

And rode along so far, till he could say, 

* See, yonder Bosworth stands, and this your way.' "* 

In this passage, the Bishop plainly shows the fairies 
maintained their influence in William's imagination, 
since the courteous keeper was mistaken by their 
associate champion for Puck or Robin Goodfellow. 
The spells resorted to to get rid of his supposed de- 
lusions, are alternatively that of turning the cloak — 
(recommended, in visions of the second sight, or 
similar illusions, as a means of obtaining a certainty 
concerning the being which is before imperfectly 
seenf) — and that of exorcising the spirit with a 
cudgel ; which last, Corbett prudently thinks, ought 
not to be resorted to, unless under an absolute con- 
viction that the exorcist is the stronger party. 
Chaucer, therefore, could not be serious in averring 
that the fairy superstitions were obsolete in his day, 
since they were found current three centuries after- 
ward. 

It is not the less certain, that, as knowledge and 
religion became more widely and brightly displayed 
over any country, the superstitious fancies of the 
people sunk gradually in esteem and influence ; and 

* Corbett's poems, p. 191. 

t A common instance is, that of a person haunted with a resem- 
blance, whose face he cannot see. If he turn his cloak, or plaid, he will 
obtain the full sight which he desires, and may probably find it to be his 
own fetch, or wraithfor-dettfete ganger. 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 157 

in the time of Queen Elizabeth, the unceasing 
labour of many and popular preachers, who declaimed 
against the " splendid miracles" of the Church of 
Rome, produced also its natural effect upon the other 
stock of superstitions. " Certainly," said Reginald 
Scot, talking of times before his own, " some one 
knave in a white sheet hath cozened and abused many 
thousands, especially when Robin Goodfellow kept 
such a coil in the country. In our childhood, our 
mothers' maids have so terrified us with an ugly devil 
having horns on his head, fire in his mouth, and a tail 
at his breech ; eyes like a basin, fangs like a dog, claws 
like a bear, a skin like a negro, and a voice roaring 
like a lion, whereby we start and are afraid when we 
hear one cry, Boh ! and they have so frayd us with 
bull-beggars, spirits, witches, urchins, elves, hags, 
fairies, satyrs, Pans, faunes, sylvans, Kitt-with-the- 
candlestick, tritons, centaurs, dwarfs, giants, imps, 
calcars, conjurors, nymphs, changelings, incubus, 
Robin Goodfellow, the spoorn, the man-in-the-oak, 
the hellwain, the firedrake, the puckle, Tom Thomb, 
Hobgoblin, Tom-Tumbler, Boneless, and such other 
bugbears, that we are afraid of our own shadows, 
insomuch that some never fear the Devil but on a 
dark night ; and then a polled sheep is a perilous 
beast, and many times is taken for our father's soul, 
specially in a churchyard, where a right hardy man 
heretofore durst not to have passed by night but his 
hair would stand upright. Well, thanks be to God, 
this wretched and cowardly infidelity, since the 
preaching of the Gospel, is in part forgotten, and 
doubtless the rest of these illusions will, in a short 
time, by God's grace, be detected, and vanish away."* 
It would require a better demonologist than I am, 
to explain the various obsolete superstitions which 
Reginald Scot has introduced as articles of the old 
English faith, into the preceding passage. I might 

* Reginald Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft, book vii. chap. 15. 

o 



158 tETTERS ON? 

indeed say, the Phuca is a Celtic superstition, from 
which the word Pook, or Puckle, was doubtless de- 
rived ; and I might conjecture, that the man-in-the- 
oak was the same with the Earl-Konig of the Ger- 
mans ; and that the hellwain were a kind of wan- 
dering spirits, the descendants of a champion named 
Hellequin, who are introduced into the romance of 
Richard sans Peur. But most antiquaries will be at 
fault concerning the spoorn, Kitt-with-the-candle- 
stick, Boneless, and some others. The catalogue, 
however, serves to show what progress the English 
have made in two centuries, in forgetting the very 
names of objects which had been the sources of ter- 
ror to their ancestors of the Elizabethan age. 

Before leaving the subject of fairy superstition in 
England, we may remark, that it was of a more play- 
ful and gentle, less wild and necromantic character, 
than that received among the sister people. The 
amusements of the southern fairies were light and 
sportive ; their resentments were satisfied with pinch- 
ing or scratching the objects of their displeasure; 
their peculiar sense of cleanliness rewarded the 
housewives with the silver token in the shoe ; their 
nicety was extreme concerning any coarseness or 
negligence which could offend their delicacy ; and I 
cannot discern, except, perhaps, from the insinua- 
tions of some scrupulous divines, that they were vas- 
sals to, or in close alliance with, the infernals, as 
there is too much reason to believe was the case 
with their North British sisterhood. * The common 
nursery story cannot be forgotten, how, shortly after 
the death of what is called a nice tidy housewife, 
the Elfin band were shocked to see that a person of 

* Dr.* Jackson, in his Treatise on Unbelief, opines for the severer 
opinion. u Thus are the Fayries, from difference of events ascribed to 
them, divided into good and bad, when as it is but one and the same 
malignant fiend, that meddles in both ; seeking sometimes to be feared, 
otherwhiles to be loued as God, for the bodily harmes or good tulles 
supposed to bein his power."— Jackson on Vnodief, p. 178, edit. 1635. 



DEMONOLO0Y AND WITCHCUAFT. 159 

different character, with whom the widower had 
filled his deserted arms, instead of the nicely ar- 
ranged little loaf of the whitest bread, and a basin 
of sweet cream, duly placed for their refreshment by 
the deceased, had substituted a brown loaf and a 
cobb of herrings. Incensed at such a coarse regale, 
the elves dragged the peccant housewife out of bed, 
and pulled her down the wooden stairs by the heels, 
repeating, at the same time, in scorn of her churlish 
hospitality, 

w Brown bread and herring cobb! 
Thy fat sides shall have many a bob !" 

But beyond such playful malice they had no desire 
to extend their resentment. 

The constant attendant upon the English fairy 
court was the celebrated Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, 
who, to the elves, acted in some measure as the jester, 
or clown of the company, — (a character then to be 
found in the establishment of every person of qua- 
lity,) — or to use a more modern comparison, resem- 
bled the Pierrot of the pantomime. His jests were 
of the most simple, and at the same time the broad- 
est comic character — to mislead a clown on his path 
homeward, to disguise himself like a stool, in order 
to induce an old gossip to commit the egregious mis- 
take of sitting down on the floor, when she expected 
to repose on a chair, were his special enjoyments. 
If he condescended to do some work for the sleep- 
ing family, in which he had some resemblance to 
the Scottish household spirit called a Brownie, the 
selfish Puck was far from practising this labour on 
the disinterested principle of the northern goblin, 
who, if raiment or food was left in his way, and for 
his use, departed from the family in displeasure. 
Robin Goodfellow, on the contrary, must have both 
his food and his rest, as Milton informs us, amid his 
other notices of country superstitions, in the poem 
of 1' Allegro. And it is to be noticed, that he repre- 



160 LETTERS ON 

sents these tales of the fairies, told round the cot- 
tage hearth, as of a cheerful rather than a serious 
cast ; which illustrates what I have said concerning 
the milder character of the southern superstitions, as 
compared with those of the same class in Scotland 
— the stories of which are for the most part of a 
frightful, and not seldom of a disgustful, quality. 

Poor Robin, however, between whom and King 
Oberon Shakspeare contrives to keep a degree of 
distinct subordination, which for a moment deceives 
us by its appearance of reality, notwithstanding his 
turn for wit and humour, had been obscured by obli- 
vion even in the days of Queen Bess. We have 
already seen, in a'passage quoted from Reginald Scot, 
that the belief was fallen into abeyance ; that which 
follows from the same author, affirms more posi- 
tively that Robin's date was over. 

" Know you this, by-the-way, that heretofore Robin 
Goodfellow and Hobgoblin were as terrible, and also 
as credible, to the people, as hags and witches be 
now ; and, in time to come, a witch will be as much 
derided and condemned, and as clearly perceived, 
as the illusion and knavery of Robin Goodfellow, 
upon whom there have gone as many and as credi- 
ble tales as witchcraft, saving that it hath not pleased 
the translators of the Bible to call spirits by the 
name of Robin Goodfellow, as they have diviners, 
soothsayers, poisoners, and cozeners, by the name 
of witches."* In the same tone Reginald Scot ad- 
dresses the reader in the preface — " To make a so- 
lemn suit to you that are partial readers to set aside 
partiality, to take in good part my writings, and 
with indifferent eyes to look upon my book, were la- 
bour lost and time ill employed; for I should no 
more prevail herein, than if a hundred years since I 
should have entreated your predecessors to believe 
that Robin Goodfellow, that great and ancient bull- 

* Reginald Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft, book vii. chap. H. 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT, 161 

beggar, had been but a cozening merchant, and no 
devil indeed. But Robin Goodfellow ceaseth now 
to be much feared, and Popeiy is sufficiently disco- 
vered ; nevertheless, witches' charms and conjurors' 
cozenage are yet effectual." .This passage seems 
clearly to prove, that the belief in Robin Goodfellow 
and his fairy companions was now out of date, while 
that as to witchcraft, as was afterward but too well 
shown, kept its ground against argument and con- 
troversy, and survived " to shed more blood." 

We are then to take leave of this fascinating ar- 
ticle of the popular creed, having in it so much of 
interest to the imagination, that we almost envy the 
credujity of those who, in the gentle moonlight of a 
summer night in England, amid the tangled glades 
of a deep forest, or the turfy swell of her romantic 
commons, could fancy they saw the fairies tracing 
their sportive ring. But it is in vain to regret illu- 
sions which, however engaging, must of necessity 
yield their place before the increase of knowledge, 
like shadows at the advance of morn. These super- 
stitions have already served their best and most use- 
ful purpose, having been embalmed in the poetry of 
Milton and of Shakspeare, as well as writers only 
inferior to these great names. Of Spenser we must 
say nothing, because in his Faery Queen, the title 
is the only circumstance which comiects his splen- 
did allegory with the popular superstition, and, as 
he uses it, means nothing more than an Utopia, or 
nameless country. 

With the fairy popular creed fell, doubtless, many 
subordinate articles of credulity in England ; but the 
belief in witches kept its ground. It was rooted in 
the minds of the common people, as well by the 
easy solution it afforded of much which they found 
otherwise hard to explain, as in reverence to the 
Holy Scriptures, in which the word witch being used 
in several places, conveyed to those who did not 
trouble themselves about the nicety of the transla- 
02 



16Z LETTERS ON 

tion from the Eastern tongues, the inference that the 
same species of witches were meant as those against 
whom modern legislation had, in most European na- 
tions, directed the punishment of death. These two 
circumstances furnished the numerous believers in 
witchcraft with arguments in divinity and law which 
they conceived irrefragable. They might say to the 
theologist, Will you not believe in witches? the 
Scriptures aver their existence ; — to the jurisconsult, 
Will you dispute the existence of a crime, against 
which our own statute-book and the code of almost 
all civilized countries have attested, by laws upon 
which hundreds and thousands have been convicted, 
many, or even most of whom have, by their judicial 
confessions, acknowledged their guilt and the justice 
of their punishment] It is a strange skepticism, 
they might add, which rejects the evidence of Scrip- 
ture, of human legislature, and of the accused per- 
sons themselves. 

Notwithstanding these specious reasons, the six- 
teenth and seventeenth centuries were periods when 
the revival of learning, the invention of printing, the 
fearless investigations of the reformers into subjects 
thought formerly too sacred for consideration of any 
save the clergy, had introduced a system of doubt, 
inquiry, disregard of authority, when unsupported by 
argument, and unhesitating exercise of the private 
judgment, on subjects which had occupied the bulls 
of popes, and decrees of councils. In short, the 
spirit of the age was little disposed to spare error, 
however venerable, or countenance imposture, how- 
ever sanctioned by length of time and universal 
acquiescence. Learned writers arose in different 
countries to challenge the very existence of this 
imaginary crime, to rescue the reputation of the 
great men whose knowledge, superior to that of 
their age, had caused them to be suspected of magic, 
and to put a stop to the horrid superstition whose 
victims were the aged, ignorant, and defenceless, and 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 163 

which could only be compared to that which sent 
victims of old through the fire to Moloch. 

The courageous interposition of those philoso- 
phers who opposed science and experience to the 
prejudices of superstition and ignorance, and in do- 
ing so, incurred much misrepresentation, and per- 
haps no little ill-will, in the cause of truth and 
humanity, claim for them some distinction in a 
work on Demonology. The pursuers of exact sci- 
ence to its coy retreats were sure to be the first to 
discover, that the most remarkable phenomena in 
nature are regulated by certain fixed laws, and can- 
not rationally be referred to supernatural agency, the 
sufficing cause to which superstition attributes all 
that is beyond her own narrow power of explana- 
tion. Each advance in natural knowledge teaches 
us that it is the pleasure of the Creator to govern 
the world by the laws which he has imposed, and 
which are not in our times interrupted or suspended. 

The learned Wier, or Wierus, was a man of great 
research in physical science, and studied under the 
celebrated Cornelius Agrippa, against whom the 
charge of sorcery was-repeatedly alleged by Paulus 
Jovius, and other authors, while he suffered on the 
other hand from the persecution of the inquisitors 
of the church, whose accusation against this cele- 
brated man was, that he denied the existence of 
spirits, a charge very inconsistent with that of sor- 
cery, which consists in corresponding with them. 
Wierus, after taking his degrees as a doctor of medi- 
cine, became physician to the Duke of Cleves, at 
whose court he practised for thirty years, with the 
highest reputation. This learned man, disregarding 
the scandal which, by so doing, he was likely to 
bring upon himself, was one of the first who attacked 
the vulgar belief, and boldly assailed, both by se- 
rious arguments and by ridicule, the vulgar credulity 
on the subject of wizards and witches. 

Gabriel Naude, or Naudaeus, as* he termed him- 



164 LETTERS ON 

self, was a perfect scholar and man of letters, busied 
during his whole life with assembling books together, 
and enjoying the office of librarian to several per- 
sons of high rank, among others, to Queen Christina 
of Sweden. He was, besides, a beneficed clergy- 
man, leading a most unblemished life, and so tem- 
perate, as never to taste any liquor stronger than 
water ; jet did he not escape the scandal which is 
usually flung by their prejudiced contemporaries 
upon those disputants whom it is found more easy 
to defame than to answer. He wrote an interesting 
work, entitled, " Apologie pour les Grands Hommes 
Accuses de Magie ;" and as he exhibited a good 
deal of vivacity of talent, and an earnestness in 
pleading his cause, which did not always spare some 
of the superstitions of Rome herself, he was charged 
by his contemporaries as guilty of heresy and skep- 
ticism, when justice could only accuse him of an in- 
cautious eagerness to make good his argument. 

Among persons who, upon this subject, purged 
their eyes with rue and euphrasie, besides the Rev. 
Dr. H^irsnet, and many others (who wrote rather on 
special cases of Demonology than on the general 
question), Reginald Scot ought to be distinguished. 
Webster assures us, that he was a " person of com- 
petent learning, pious, and of a good family." He 
seems to have been a zealous Protestant, and much 
of his book, as well as that of Harsnet, is designed 
to throw upon the Papists in particular those tricks, 
in which, by confederacy and imposture, the popular 
ideas concerning witchcraft, possession, and other 
supernatural fancies were maintained and kept in 
exercise ; but he also writes on the general question 
with some force and talent, considering that his sub- 
ject is incapable of being reduced into a regular 
form, and is of a nature particularly seductive to an 
excursive talent. He appears to have studied leger- 
demain for the purpose of showing how much that 
is apparently unaccountable can nevertheless be 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 163 

performed without the intervention of supernatural 
assistance, even when it is impossible to persuade 
the vulgar that the Devil has not been consulted on 
the occasion. Scot also had intercourse with some 
of the celebrated fortune-tellers, or Philomaths, of 
the time ; one of whom he brings forward to declare 
the vanity of the science which he himself had once 
professed. 

To defend the popular belief of witchcraft, there 
arose a number of advocates, of whom Bodin, and 
some others, neither wanted knowledge nor powers 
of reasoning. They pressed the incredulous party 
with the charge that they denied the existence of a 
crime against which the law had denounced a capi- 
tal punishment. As that law was understood to ema- 
nate from James himself, who was reigning monarch 
during the hottest part of the controversy, the Eng- 
lish authors who defended the opposite side were 
obliged to intrench themselves under an evasion, to 
avoid maintaining an argument unpalatable to a de- 
gree to those in power, and which might perchance 
have proved unsafe to those who used it. With a 
certain degree of sophistry, they answered, that they 
did not doubt the possibility of witches, but only de- 
murred to what is their nature, and how they came 
to be such — according to the scholastic jargon, that 
the question in respect to witches, was not de exis- 
tentia, but only de modo exutendi. 

By resorting to so subtle an argument, those who 
impugned the popular belief were obliged, with some 
inconsistency, to grant that witchcraft had existed, 
and might exist, only insisting that it was a species 
of witchcraft consisting of they knew not what, but 
certainly of something different from that which 
legislators, judges, and juries had hitherto consi- 
dered the statute as designed to repress. 

In the mean time (the rather that the debate was 
on a subject particularly difficult of comprehension), 
the debating parties grew warm, and began to call 



166 LETTERS ON 

names. Bodin, a lively Frenchman of an irritable 
habit, explained the zeal of Wierus to protect the 
tribe of sorcerers from punishment, by stating, that 
he himself was a conjuror, and the scholar of Cor- 
nelius Agrippa, and might therefore well desire to 
save the lives of those accused of the same league 
with Satan. Hence they threw on their antagonists 
the offensive names of witch-patrons and witch- 
advocates, as if it were impossible for any to hold 
the opinion of Naudaeus, Wierus, Scot, &c, without 
patronising the Devil and the witches against their 
brethren of mortality. Assailed by such heavy 
charges, the philosophers themselves lost patience, 
and retorted abuse in their turn, calling Bodin, Del- 
rio, and others who used their arguments, witch- 
advocates, and the like, as the affirming and defend- 
ing the existence of the crime seemed to increase 
the number of witches, and assuredly augmented the 
list of executions. But, for a certain time, the pre- 
ponderance of the argument lay on the side of the 
Demonologists, and we may briefly observe the 
causes which gave their opinions, for a period, greater 
influence than their opponents, on the public mind. 

It is first to be observed, that Wierus, for what 
reason cannot well be conjectured, except to show 
the extent of his cabalistical knowledge, had intro- 
duced into his work against witchcraft the whole 
Stenographia of Trithemius, which he had copied 
from the original in the library of Cornelius Agrippa; 
and which, suspicious from the place where he found 
it, and from the long catalogue of fiends which it 
contained, with the charms for raising and for bind- 
ing them to the service of mortals, was considered 
by Bodin as containing proof that Wierus himself 
was a sorcerer ; not one of the wisest, certainly, since 
he thus unnecessarily placed at the disposal of any 
who might buy the book, the whole secrets which 
formed his stock in trade. 

Secondly, we may notice, that, from the state of 



DEM0N0L0GY AND WITCHCRAFT. 167 

physical science at the period when Van Helmont, 
Paracelsus, and others began to penetrate into its 
recesses, it was an unknown, obscure, and ill-defined 
region, and did not permit those who laboured in it 
to give that precise and accurate account of their 
discoveries, which the progress of reasoning experi- 
mentally, and from analysis, has enabled the late 
discoverers to do with success. Natural magic, a 
phrase used to express those phenomena which 
could be produced by a knowledge of the properties 
of matter, had so much in it that was apparently un- 
combined and uncertain, that the art of chymistry 
was accounted mystical, and an opinion prevailed, 
that the results now known to be the consequence 
of laws of matter, could not be traced through their 
various combinations, even by those who knew the 
effects themselves. Physical science, in a word, 
was cumbered by a number of fanciful and incorrect 
opinions, chiefly of a mystical character. If, for 
instance, it was observed that a flag and a fern 
never grew near each other, the circumstance was 
imputed to some antipathy between these vegetables ; 
nor was it for some time resolved by the natural 
rule, that the flag has its nourishment in marshy 
ground, whereas the fern loves a deep dryish soil. 
The attributes of the divining-rod were fully cre- 
dited ; the discovery of the philosopher's stone was 
daily hoped for; and electricity, magnetism, and 
other remarkable and misconceived phenomena 
were appealed to as proof of the reasonableness of 
their expectations. Until such phenomena were 
traced to their sources, imaginary and often mystical 
causes were assigned to them, for the same reason 
that, in the wilds of a partially discovered country, 
according to the satirist, 

" Geographers on pathless downs 
Place elephants for want of towns." 

This substitution of mystical fancies for experi- 



168 LETTERS ON 

mental reasoning, gave, in the sixteenth and seven- 
teenth centuries, a doubtful and twilight appearance 
to the various branches of physical philosophy. The 
learned and sensible Dr. Webster, for instance, 
writing in detection of supposed witchcraft, as- 
sumes, as a string of undeniable facts, opinions 
which our more experienced age w r ould reject as 
frivolous fancies ; " for example, the effects of heal- 
ing by the weapon-salve, the sympathetic powder, 
the curing of various diseases by apprehensions, 
amulets, or by transplantation." All of which un- 
doubted wonders he accuses the age of desiring to 
throw on the Devil's back — an unnecessary load, 
certainly, since such things do not exist, and it is 
therefore in vain to seek to account for them. It 
followed, that while the opposers of the ordinary 
theory might have struck the deepest blows at the 
witch-hypothesis by an appeal to common sense, 
they were themselves hampered by articles of phi- 
losophical belief, which, they must have been sen- 
sible, contained nearly as deep draughts upon human 
credulity as were made by the Demonologists, 
against whose doctrine they protested. This error 
had a doubly bad effect, both as degrading the imme- 
diate department in which it occurred, and as afford- 
ing a protection for falsehood in other branches of 
science. The champions who, in their own pro- 
vince, were obliged by the imperfect knowledge of 
the times, to admit much that was mystical and in- 
explicable — those who opined, with Bacon, that warts 
could be cured by sympathy — who thought, with 
Napier, that hidden treasures could be discovered 
by the mathematics — who salved the weapon instead 
of the wound, and detected murders as well as 
springs of water by the divining-rod, could not con- 
sistently use, to confute the believers in witches, an 
argument turning on the impossible or the incredible. 
Such were the obstacles arising from the vanity 
of philosophers and the imperfection of their science, 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 169 

V/hich suspended the strength of their appeal to 
reason and common sense against the condemning 
of wretches to a cruel death, on account of crimes 
which the nature of things rendered in modern times 
totally impossible. We cannot doubt that they suf- 
fered considerably in the contest, which was carried 
on with much anger and malevolence ; but the good 
seed which they had sown remained uncorrupted in 
the soil, to bear fruit so soon as the circumstances 
should be altered which at first impeded its growth. 
In the next letter I shall take a view of the causes 
Avhich helped to remove these impediments — in ad- 
dition, it must always be remembered, to the general 
increase of knowledge and improvement of experi- 
mental philosophy. 



LETTER VII. 

Penal Laws unpopular when rigidly exercised — Prosecution of Witches 
placed in the Hand of Special Commissioners., ad inquirendum— Pro- 
secution for Witchcraft not frequent in the elder Period of the 
Roman Empire— Nor in the Middle Ages— Some Cases took place, 
however — The Maid of Orleans — The Dutchess of Gloucester — 
Richard the Third's Charge against the Relations of the Queen- 
Dowager — But Prosecutions against Sorcerers became more common 
in the End of the fourteenth Century — Usually united with the Charge 
of Heresy — Monstrelet's Account of the Persecution against the Wal- 
denses, under Pretext of Witchcraft— Florimond's Testimony con- 
cerning the Increase of Witches in his own Time — Bull of Pope In- 
nocent Vin.— Various Prosecutions in foreign Countries under this 
severe Law — Prosecutions in Labourt, by the Inquisitor De Lancre 
and his Colleague— Lycanthropy— Witches in Spain — in Sweden— 
And particularly those apprehended at Mohra. 

Penal laws, like those of the middle ages de- 
nounced against witchcraft, may be at first hailed 
with unanimous acquiescence and approbation ; but 
are uniformly found to disgust and offend, at least 
the more sensible part of the public, when the pu- 
nishments become frequent, and are relentlessly in- 
P 



170 LETTERS ON 

flicted. Those against treason are no exception* 
Each reflecting government will do well to shorten 
that melancholy reign of terror, which, perhaps, must 
necessarily follow on the discovery of a plot, or the 
defeat of an insurrection. They ought not, either 
in humanity or policy, to wait till the voice of the 
nation calls to them, as Mecaenas to Augustus, 
"Surge tandem, carnifexV 

It is accordingly remarkable, in different coun- 
tries, how often, at some particular period of their 
history, there occurred an epidemic terror of witches, 
which, as fear is always cruel and credulous, glutted 
the public with seas of innocent blood — and how 
uniformly men loathed the gore, after having swal- 
lowed it, and by a reaction natural to the human 
mind, desired in prudence to take away or restrict 
those laws, which had been the source of carnage, 
in order that their posterity might neither have the 
will nor the means to enter into similar excesses. 

A short review of foreign countries before we 
come to notice the British islands and their colonies, 
will prove the truth of this statement. In Catholic 
countries on the continent, the various kingdoms 
adopted readily that part of the civil law already 
mentioned, which denounces sorcerers and witches 
as rebels to God, and authors of sedition in the em- 
pire. But being considered as obnoxious equally to 
the canon and civil law, Commissions of Inquisition 
were especially empowered to weed out of the land 
the witches and those who had intercourse with 
familiar spirits, or in any other respect fell under the 
ban of the Church, as well as the heretics who pro- 
mulgated or adhered to false doctrine. Special 
warrants were thus granted from time to time in be- 
half of such inquisitors, authorizing them to visit 
those provinces of Germany, France, or Italy, where 
any report concerning witches or sorcery had alarmed 
the public mind ; and those commissioners, proud of 
the trust reposed in them, thought it becoming to 



DEM0N0L0GY AND WITCHCRAFT. ltl 

use the utmost exertions on their part that the sub- 
tlety of the examinations, and the severity of the 
tortures they inflicted, might wring the truth out of 
all suspected persons, until they rendered the pro- 
vince in which they exercised their jurisdiction a 
desert from which the inhabitants fled. It would be 
impossible to give credit to the extent of this delu- 
sion, had not some of the inquisitors themselves 
been reporters of their own judicial exploits: the 
same hand which subscribed the sentence has re- 
corded the execution. 

In the earlier period of the Church of Rome, 
witchcraft is frequently alluded to, and a capital 
punishment assigned to those who were supposed 
to have accomplished by sorcery the death of others, 
or to have attempted, by false prophecies, or other- 
wise, under pretext of consulting with the spiritual 
world, to make innovation in the state. But no 
general denunciation against witchcraft itself, as a 
league with the enemy of man, or desertion of the 
Deity, and a crime sui generis, appears to have been 
so acted upon, until the later period of the six- 
teenth century, when the Papal system had attained 
its highest pitch of power and of corruption. The 
influence of the churchmen was, in early times, se- 
cure, and they rather endeavoured, by the fabrica- 
tion of false miracles, to prolong the blind vene- 
ration of the people, than to vex others, and weary 
themselves, by secret investigations into dubious 
and mystical trespasses, in which, probably, the 
higher and better instructed members of the clerical 
order put as little faith at that time, as they do now. 
Did there remain a mineral fountain, respected for 
the cures which it had wrought, a huge oak-tree, or 
venerated mount, which beauty of situation had 
recommended to traditional respect, the fathers of 
the Roman Church were in policy reluctant to 
abandon such impressive spots, or to represent them 
*■ as exclusively the rendezvous of witches, or of evil 



172 LETTERS ON 

spirits. On the contrary, by assigning the virtues 
of the spring, or the beauty of the tree, to the guar- 
dianship of some saint, they acquired, as it were, 
for the defence of their own doctrine, a frontier for- 
tress which they wrested from the enemy, and 
which it was at least needless to dismantle, if it 
could be conveniently garrisoned and defended. 
Thus, the Church secured possession of many 
beautiful pieces of scenery, as Mr. Whitefield is said 
to have grudged to the Devil the monopoly of all the 
fine tunes. 

It is true, that this policy was not uniformly ob- 
served. The story of the celebrated Jeanne d'Arc, 
called the Maid of Orleans, preserves the memory 
of such a custom, which was in that case turned to 
the prejudice of the poor woman who observed it. 

It is well known that this unfortunate female fell 
into the hands of the English, after having, by her 
courage and enthusiasm manifested on many im- 
portant occasions, revived the drooping courage of 
the French, and inspired them with the hope of once 
more freeing their country. The English vulgar 
regarded her as a sorceress — the French as an in- 
spired heroine ; while the wise on both sides con- 
sidered her as neither the one nor the other, but a 
tool used by the celebrated Dunois, to play the part 
which he assigned her. The Duke of Bedford, when 
the ill-starred Jeanne fell into his hands, took away 
her life, in order to stigmatize her memory with sor- 
cery, and to destroy the reputation she had acquired 
among the French. The mean recurrence to such 
a charge against such a person had no more suc- 
cess than it deserved, although Jeanne was con- 
demned, both by the Parliament of Bourdeaux and 
the University of Paris. Her indictment accused 
her of having frequented an ancient oak-tree, and 
a fountain arising under it, called the Fated or Fairy 
Oak of Bourlemont. Here she was stated to have 
repaired, during the hours of divine service, dancing, 






DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 173 

skipping, and making gestures, around the tree and 
fountain, and hanging on the branches, chaplets, and 
garlands of flowers, gathered for the purpose, re- 
viving, doubtless, the obsolete idolatry which in an- 
cient times had been rendered on the same spot to 
the Genius Loci. The charmed sword and blessed 
banner, which she had represented as signs of her 
celestial mission, were, in this hostile charge against 
her, described as enchanted implements, designed 
by the fiends and fairies whom she worshipped, to 
accomplish her temporary success. The death of 
the innocent, high-minded, and perhaps amiable en- 
thusiast was not, we are sorry to say, a sacrifice to 
a superstitious fear of witchcraft, but a cruel in- 
stance of wicked policy, mingled with national 
jealousy and hatred. 

To the same cause, about the same period, we 
may impute the trial of the Dutchess of Gloucester, 
wife of the good Duke Humphrey, accused of con- 
sulting witches concerning the mode of compassing 
the death of her husband's nephew, Henry VI. 
The Dutchess was condemned to do penance, and 
thereafter banished to the Isle of Man, while several 
of her accomplices died in prison, or were executed. 
But in this instance, also, the alleged witchcraft was 
only the ostensible cause of a procedure which had 
its real source in the deep hatred between the Duke 
of Gloucester and Cardinal Beaufort, his half- 
brother. The same pretext was used by Richard III., 
when he brought the charge of sorcery against the 
Queen-Dowager, Jane Shore, and the queen's kins- 
men ; and yet again was, by that unscrupulous 
prince, directed against Morton, afterward Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, and other adherents of the 
Earl of Richmond. The accusation, in both cases, 
was only chosen as a charge easily made, and diffi- 
cult to be eluded or repelled. 

But, in the meanwhile, as the accusation of witch- 
craft thus afforded to tyranny, or policy, the ready 
P2 



174 LETTERS ON 

fneans of assailing persons whom it might not have 
been possible to convict of any other crime, the 
aspersion itself was gradually considered with in- 
crease of terror, as spreading wider and becoming 
more contagious. So early as the year 1398, the 
University of Paris, in laying down rules for the 
judicial prosecuting of witches, express their regret 
that the crime was growing more frequent than in 
any former age. The more severe inquiries and fre- 
quent punishments, by which the judges endeavoured 
to check the progress of this impious practice, seem 
to have increased the disease ; — as, indeed, it has 
been always remarked, that those morbid affections 
of mind which depend on the imagination are sure 
to become more common, in proportion as public at- 
tention is fastened on stories connected with their 
display. 

In the same century, schisms, arising from differ- 
ent causes, greatly alarmed the Church of Rome. 
The universal spirit of inquiry which was now afloat, 
taking a different direction in different countries, had, 
in almost all of them, stirred up a skeptical dissatis- 
faction with the dogmas of the Church, — such views 
being rendered more creditable to the poorer classes 
through the corruption of manners among the clergy, 
too many of whom wealth and ease had caused to 
neglect that course of morality which best recom- 
mends religious doctrine. In almost every nation in 
Europe, there lurked, in the crowded cities, or wild 
solitude of the country, sects who agreed chiefly in t 
their animosity to the supremacy of Rome, and their 
desire to cast off her domination. The Waldenses and 
Albigenses were parties existing in great numbers 
through the south of France. Romanists became ex- 
tremely desirous to combine the doctrine of the he- 
retics with witchcraft, which, according to their ac- 
count, abounded especially where the Protestants 
were most numerous ; and the bitterness increasing, 
they scrupled not to throw the charge of sorcery, as 



DEMONOLOG? AND WITCHCRAFT. 175 

a matter of course, upon those who dissented from 
the Catholic standard of faith. The Jesuit Delrio 
alleges several reasons for the affinity which he con- 
siders as existing between the Protestant and the 
sorcerer; he accuses the former of embracing the 
opinion of Wieros, and other defenders of the Devil 
(as he calls all who oppose his own opinions con- 
cerning witchcraft), — thus fortifying the kingdom of 
Satan against that of the Chinch.* 

A remarkable passage in Monstreletputsin a clear 
view the point aimed at by the Catholics in thus con- 
fusing and blending the doctrines of heresy and the 
practice of witchcraft, and how a meeting of inoffen- 
sive Protestants could be cunningly identified with a 
Sabbath of hags and fiends. 

"In this year [1459], in the town of Arras, and 
county of Artois, arose, through a terrible and me- 
lancholy chance, an opinion called, I know not why, 
the Religion of Vaudoisie. This sect consisted, it is 
said, of certain persons, both men and women, who, 
under cloud of night, by the power of the Devil, re- 
paired to some solitary spot, amid woods and deserts, 
where the Devil appeared before them in a human 
form, save that his visage is never perfectly visible 
to them, — read to the assembly a book of his ordi- 
nances, informing them how he would be obeyed, — 
distributed a very little money, and a plentiful meal, 
which was concluded by a scene of general profli- 
gacy, — after which, each one of the party was con- 
veyed home to her or his own habitation. 

" On accusations of access to such acts of mad- 
ness,"' continues Monstrelet, "several creditable 
persons of the town of Arras were seized and impri- 
soned, along with some foolish women and persons 
of little consequence. These were so horribly tor- 
tured, that some of them admitted the truth of the 
whole accusations, and said, besides, that they had 

* Delrio^ de Magia. See the Preface 



176 LETTERS ON 

seen and recognised in their nocturnal assembly, 
many persons of rank, prelates, seigneurs, and go- 
vernors of bailliages and cities, being such names as 
the examinators had suggested to the persons exa- 
mined, while they constrained them by torture to 
impeach the persons to whom they belonged. Se- 
veral of those who had been thus informed against 
were arrested, thrown into prison, and tortured for 
so long a time, that they also were obliged to confess 
what was charged against them. After this, those of 
mean condition were executed and inhumanly burned, 
while the richer and more powerful of the accused 
ransomed themselves by sums of money, to avoid 
the punishment and the shame attending it. Many 
even of those also confessed being* persuaded to take 
that course by the interrogators, who promised them 
indemnity for life and fortune. Some there were, of 
a truth, who suffered, with marvellous patience and 
constancy, the torments inflicted on them, and would 
confess nothing imputed to their charge ; but they, 
too, had to give large sums to the judges, who ex- 
acted that such of them as, notwithstanding- their 
mishandling, were still able to move, should banish 
themselves from that part of the country." Mon- 
strelet winds up this shocking narrative by informing 
us, " that it ought not to be concealed, that the whole 
accusation was a stratagem of wicked men for their 
own covetous purposes, and in order, by these false 
accusations and forced confessions, to destroy the 
life, fame, and fortune of w r ealthy persons." 

Delrio himself confesses that Franciscus Balduinus 
gives an account of the pretended punishment, but 
real persecution, of these Waldenses, in similar terms 
with Monstrelet, wose suspicions are distinctly spo- 
ken out, and adds, that the Parliament of Paris, hav- 
ing heard the affair by appeal, had declared the sen- 
tence illegal, and the judges iniquitous, by an arret, 
dated 20th May, 1491. The Jesuit Delrio quotes the 
passage, but adheres with lingering reluctance, to 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 177 

the truth of the accusation.—" The Waldenses (of 
whom the Albigenses are a species) were," he says, 
" never free from the most wretched excess of fasci- 
nation ;" and finally, though he allows the conduct of 
the judges to have been most odious, he cannot pre- 
vail on himself to acquit the parties charged, by such 
interested accusers, with horrors, which should hardly 
have been found proved even upon the most distinct 
evidence. He appeals on this occasion to Flori- 
mond's work on Antichrist. The introduction of that 
work deserves to be quoted, as strongly illustrative 
of the condition to which the country was reduced, 
and calculated to make an impression the very re- 
verse probably of that which the writer would have 
desired. 

" All those who have afforded us some signs of the 
approach of Antichrist, agree that the increase of 
sorcery and witchcraft is to distinguish the melan- 
choly period of his advent ; and was ever age so af- 
flicted with them as ours 1 The seats destined for 
criminals before our judicatories are blackened with 
persons accused of this guilt. There are not judges 
enough to try them. Our dungeons are gorged with 
them. No day passes that we do not render our tri- 
bunals bloody by the dooms which we pronounce, or 
in which we do not return to our homes discounte- 
nanced and terrified at the horrible contents of the 
confessions which it has been our duty to hear. And 
the Devil is accounted so good a master, that we 
cannot commit so great a number of his slaves to the 
flames, but what there shall arise from their ashes a 
number sufficient to supply their place."* 

This last statement, by which it appears that the 
most active and unsparing inquisition was taking 
place, corresponds with the historical notices of 
repeated persecutions upon this dreadful charge of 
sorcery. A bull of Pope Innocent the VIII. rang 

* Florimond concerning the Antichrist, cap. 7, n. 5, quoted by Delrio, 
de Magia, p. 820 



178 LETTERS ON 

the tocsin against this formidable crime, and set 
forth in the most dismal colours the guilt, while it 
stimulated the inquisitors to the unsparing discharge 
of their duty, in searching out and punishing the 
guilty. " It is come to our ears," says the bull, " that 
numbers of both sexes do not avoid to have inter- 
course with the infernal fiends, and that by their 
sorceries they afflict both man and beast ; that they 
blight the marriage-bed, destroy the births of women, 
and the increase of cattle ; they blast the corn on the 
ground, the grapes of the vineyard, the fruits of the 
trees, the grass, and herbs of the field." For which 
reasons, the inquisitors were armed with the apos- 
tolic power, and called upon to " convict, imprison, 
and punish," and so forth. 

Dreadful were the consequences of this bull all 
over the continent, especially in Italy, Germany, and 
France.* About 1485, Cumanus burned as witches 
forty-one poor women in one year, in the county of 
Burlia. In the ensuing years, he continued the pro- 
secution with such unremitting zeal, that many fled 
from the country. 

Alciatus states, that an inquisitor, about the same 
period, burned a hundred sorcerers in Piedmont, 
and persevered in his inquiries till human patience 
was exhausted, and the people arose and drove him 
out of the country, after which the jurisdiction was 
deferred to the archbishop. That prelate consulted 
Alciatus himself, who had just then obtained his 
doctor's degree in civil law, to which he was after- 
ward an honour. A number of unfortunate wretches 
were brought for judgment, fitter, according to the 
civilian's opinion, for a course of hellebore, than for 
the stake. Some were accused of having dishonoured 
the crucifix, and denied their salvation; others of 
having absconded to keep the Devil's Sabbath, in spite 
of bolts and bars ; others of having merely joined 

* Dr. Hutchison quotes H. Institor, 105, 161 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 179 

in the choral dances around the witches' tree of ren- 
dezvous. Several of their husbands and relatives 
swore that they were in bed and asleep during these 
pretended excursions. Alciatus recommended gen- 
tle and temperate measures ; and the minds of the 
country became at length composed.* 

In 1488, the country four leagues around Constance 
was laid waste by lightning and tempest, and two 
women being, by fair means or foul, made to confess 
themselves guilty as the cause of the devastation, 
suffered death. 

About 1515, five hundred persons were executed 
at Geneva, under the character of " Protestant 
witches ;" from which we may suppose many suffered 
for heresy. Forty-eight witches were burned at Ra- 
vensburgh within four years, as Hutchison reports, on 
the authority of Mengho, the author of the " Malleus 
Maleficarum." In Lorraine, the learned inquisitor 
Remigius boasts that he put to death nine hundred 
people in fifteen years. As many were banished 
from that country ; so that whole towns were on the 
point of becoming desolate. In 1524, a thousand 
persons were put to death in one year at Como, in 
Italy, and about one hundred every year after for 
several years.f 

In the beginning of the next century, the persecu- 
tion of witches broke out in France with a fury 
which was hardly conceivable, and multitudes were 
burned amid that gay and lively people. Some notion 
of the extreme prejudice of their judges may be 
drawn from the words of one of the inquisitors them- 
selves, Pierre de Lancre, royal counsellor in the 
Parliament of Rourdeaux, with whom the President 
Espaignel was joined in a commission to inquire into 
certain acts of sorcery, reported to have been com- 
mitted in Labourt and its neighbourhood, at the foot 

* Alciat. Parerg. Juris, lib. viii. chap. 22. 
t Bart, de Spina, de Strigilibus. 



180 LETTERS ON 

of the Pyrenees, about the month of May, 1619. A 
few extracts from the preface will best evince the 
state of mind in which he proceeded to the discharge 
of his commission. 

His story assumes the form of a narrative of a 
direct war between Satan on the one side, and the 
Royal Commissioners on the other, " because," says 
Counsellor de Lancre, with self-complaisance, " no- 
thing is so calculated to strike terror into the Fiend 
and his dominions, as a commission with such ple- 
nary powers." 

At first, Satan endeavoured to supply his vassals 
who were brought before the judges with strength 
to support the examinations, so that if, by intermis- 
sion of the torture, the wretches should fall into a 
doze, they declared, when they were recalled from 
it to the question, that the profound stupor "had 
something of Paradise in it,— being gilded," said the 
judge, " with the immediate presence of the Devil ;" 
though in all probability, it rather derived its charms 
from the natural comparison between the insensibility 
of exhaustion, and the previous agony of acute torture. 
The judges took care that the Fiend seldom obtained 
any advantage in the matter, by refusing their vic- 
tims, in most cases, any interval of rest or sleep. 
Satan then proceeded, in the way of direct defiance, 
to stop the mouth of the accused openly, and by 
mere force, with something like a visible obstruction 
in their throat. Notwithstanding this, to put the 
Devil to shame, some of the accused found means, in 
spite of him, to confess and be hanged, or rather 
burned. The Fiend lost much credit by his failure on 
this occasion. Before the formidable commissioners 
arrived, he had held his courpleniere before the gates 
of Bourdeaux, and in the square of the palace of Ga- 
lienne, whereas he was now insulted publicly by his 
own vassals, and in the midst of his festival of the 
Sabbath, the children and relations of the witches, 
who had suffered, not sticking to say to him, " Out 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 181 

upon you ! your promise was, that our mothers who 
were prisoners should not die ; and look how you 
have kept your word with us! They have been 
burned, and are a heap of ashes." To appease this 
mutiny, Satan had two evasions. He produced illu- 
sory fires, and encouraged the mutinous to walk 
through them, assuring them that the judicial pile 
was as frigid and inoffensive as those which he ex- 
hibited to them. Again, taking his refuge in lies, of 
which he is well known to be the father, he stoutly 
affirmed that their parents, who seemed to have suf- 
fered, were safe in a foreign country, and that if 
their children would call on them they would receive 
an answer. They made the invocation accordingly, 
and Satan answered each of them in a tone which 
resembled the voice of the lamented parent, almost 
as successfully as Monsieur Alexandre could have 
done. 

Proceeding to a yet more close attack, the com- 
missioners, on the eve of one of the Fiend's Sab- 
baths, placed the gibbet on which they executed 
their victims just on the spot where Satan's gilded 
chair was usually stationed. The Devil was much 
offended at such an affront, and yet had so little 
power in the matter, that he could only express his 
resentment by threats, that he would hang Messieurs 
D'Amon and D'Urtubbe, gentlemen who had solicited 
and promoted the issuing of the commission, and 
would also burn the commissioners themselves in 
their own fire. We regret to say, that Satan was 
unable to execute either of these laudable resolu- 
tions. Ashamed of his excuses, he abandoned for 
three or four sittings his attendance on the Sabbaths, 
sending as his representative an imp of subordinate 
account, and in whom no one reposed confidence. 
When he took courage again to face his parliament, 
the arch-fiend covered his defection by assuring them, 
that he had been engaged in a lawsuit with the 
Deity, which he had gained with costs, and that six- 
Q 



182 LETTERS OK 

score of infant children were to be delivered up to 
him in name of damages, and the witches were 
directed to procure such victims accordingly. After 
this grand fiction, he confined himself to the petty 
vengeance of impeding the access of confessors to 
the condemned, which was the more easy, as few of 
them could speak the Basque language. I have no 
time to detail the ingenious method by which the 
learned Counsellor de Lancre explains why the 
district of Labourt should be particularly exposed 
to the pest of sorcery. The chief reason seems to 
be, that it is a mountainous, a sterile, and a border 
country, where the men are all fishers, and the 
women smoke tobacco, and wear short petticoats. 

To a person who, in this presumptuous, trifling, 
and conceited spirit, has composed a quarto volume, 
full of the greatest absurdities and grossest obsceni- 
ties ever impressed on paper, it was the pleasure of 
the most Christian monarch to consign the most ab- 
solute power which could be exercised on these 
poor people ; and he might with as much prudence 
have turned a ravenous wolf upon an undefended 
flock, of whom the animal was the natural enemy, 
as they were his natural prey. The priest, as well 
as the ignorant peasant, fell under the suspicion of 
this fell commission; and De Lancre writes with 
much complacency, that the accused were brought 
to trial to the number of forty in one day, — with 
what chance of escape, when the judges were 
blinded with prejudice, and could only hear the evi- 
dence and the defence through the medium of an 
interpreter, the understanding of the reader may 
easily anticipate. 

Among other gross transgressions of the most 
ordinary rules, it may be remarked, that the accused, 
in what their judges called confessions, contradicted 
each other at every turn respecting the description 
of the Domdaniel in which they pretended to have 
been assembled, and the fiend who presided there. 






DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 183 

All spoke to a sort of gilded throne ; but some saw a 
hideous wild he-goat seated there — some a man dis- 
figured and twisted, as suffering torture — some, with 
better taste, beheld a huge indistinct form, resembling 
one of those mutilated trunks of trees found in 
ancient forests. But De Lancre was no "Daniel 
come to judgment," and the discrepancy of evi- 
dence, which saved the life and fame of Susannah, 
made no impression in favour of the sorcerers of 
Labourt. 

Instances occur in De Lancre's book of the trial 
and condemnation of persons accused of the crime 
of lycanthropy^ a superstition which was chiefly 
current in France, but was known in other countries, 
and is the subject of great debate between Wier, 
Naude, Scot, on the one hand, and their demonolo- 
gical adversaries on the other. The idea, said the 
one party, was, that a human being had the power, 
by sorcery, of transforming himself into the shape 
of a wolf, and in that capacity, being seized with a 
species of fury, he rushed out, and made havoc 
among the flocks, slaying and wasting, like the ani- 
mal whom he represented, far more than he could 
devour. The more incredulous reasoners would not 
allow of a real transformation, whether with or with- 
out the enchanted hide of a wolf, which in some 
cases was supposed to aid the metamorphosis, and 
contended that lycanthropy only subsisted as a woful 
species of disease, a melancholy state of mind, 
broken with occasional fits of insanity, in which the 
patient imagined that he committed the ravages of 
which he was accused. Such a person, a mere 
youth, was tried at Besangon, who gave himself out 
for a servant, or yeoman pricker, of the Lord of the 
Forest, so he called his superior, who was judged to 
be the Devil. He was, by his master's power, trans- 
formed into the likeness, and performed the usual 
functions, of a wolf, and was attended in his course 
by one larger, which he supposed the Lord of the> 



184 LETTERS ON 

Forest himself. These wolves, he said, ravaged the 
flocks, and throttled the dogs which stood in their 
defence. If either had not seen the other, he howled, 
after the manner of the animal, to call his comrade 
to his share of the prey ; if he did not come upon 
this signal, he proceeded to bury it the best way he 
could. 

Such was the general persecution under Messrs. 
Espaignel and De Lancre. Many similar scenes 
occurred in France, till the edict of Louis XIV. dis- 
charging all future prosecutions for witchcraft, after 
which the crime itself was heard of no more.* 

While the spirit of superstition was working such 
hoiTors in France, it was not, we may believe, more 
idle in other countries of Europe. In Spain par- 
ticularly, long the residence of the Moors, a people 
putting deep faith in all the day-dreams of witch- 
craft, good and evil genii, spells, and talismans, the 
ardent and devotional temper of the old Christians 
dictated a severe research after sorcerers, as well 
as heretics, and relapsed Jews or Mahometans. In 
former times, during the subsistence of the Moorish 
kingdoms in Spain, a school was supposed to be kept 
open in Toboso, for the study, it is said, of magic, 
but more likely of chymistry, algebra, and other 
sciences, which, altogether mistaken by the ignorant 
and vulgar, and imperfectly understood even by those 
who studied them, were supposed to be allied to 
necromancy, or at least to natural magic. It was, 
of course, the business of the inquisition to purify 
whatever such pursuits had left of suspicious Catho- 
licism, and their labours cost as much blood on ac- 
cusations of witchcraft and magic, as for heresy and 
relapse. 

Even the colder nations of Europe were subject 
to the same epidemic terror for witchcraft, and a 
specimen of it was exhibited in the sober and rational 

* The reader may 6up fuU on such wild horrors {a the Causes 

cmrw. 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 185 

country of Sweden about the middle of last century, 
an account of which, being translated into English 
by a respectable clergyman, Doctor Horneck, excited 
general surprise how a whole people could be im- 
posed upon to the degree of shedding much blood, 
and committing great cruelty and injustice, on ac- 
count of the idle falsehoods propagated by a crew of 
lying children, who, in this case, were both actors 
and witnesses. 

The melancholy truth, that " the human heart is 
deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked," 
is by nothing proved so strongly as by the imperfect 
sense displayed by children of the sanctity of moral 
truth. Both the gentlemen and the mass of the 
people, as they advance in years, learn to despise 
and avoid falsehood ; the former out of pride, and 
from a remaining feeling derived from the days of 
chivalry, that the character of a liar is a deadly stain 
on their honour ; the other, from some general re- 
flection upon the necessity of preserving a character 
for integrity in the course of life, and a sense of the 
truth of the common adage, that " honesty is the 
best policy." But these are acquired habits of think- 
ing. The child has no natural love of truth, as is 
experienced by all who have the least acquaintance 
with early youth. If they are charged with a fault, 
while they can hardly speak, the first words they 
stammer forth are a falsehood to excuse it. Nor is 
this all : the temptation of attracting attention, the 
pleasure of enjoying importance, the desire to escape 
from an unpleasing task, or accomplish a holyday, 
will at any time overcome the sentiment of truth, so 
weak is it within them. Hence thieves and house- 
breakers, from a surprisingly early period, find means 
of rendering children useful in their mystery: nor 
are such acolytes found to evade Justice with less 
dexterity than the more advanced rogues. Where a 
number of them are concerned in the same mischief 
there is something resembling virtue in the fidelity 



188 LETTERS ON 

with which the common secret is preserved. Chil- 
dren, under the usual age of their being admitted to 
give evidence, were necessarily often examined in 
witch trials ; and it is terrible to see how often the 
little impostors, from spite, or in mere gayety of 
spirit, have, by their art and perseverance, made 
shipwreck of men's lives. But it would be hard to 
discover a case, which, supported exclusively by the 
evidence of children (the confessions under torture 
excepted), and obviously existing only in the young 
witnesses' own imagination, has been attended with 
such serious consequences, or given cause to so ex- 
tensive and fatal a delusion, as that which occurred 
in Sweden. 

The scene was the Swedish village of.Mohra, in 
the province of Elrland, which district had probably 
its name from some remnant of ancient superstition. 
The delusion had come to a great height ere it 
reached the ears of government, when, as was the 
general procedure, royal commissioners were sent 
down, men well fitted for the duty intrusted to them ; 
that is, with ears open to reqeive the incredibilities 
with which they were to be crammed, and hearts 
hardened against every degree of compassion to the 
accused. The complaints of the common people, 
backed by some persons of better condition, were, that 
a number of persons, renowned as witches, had drawn 
several hundred children of all classes under the 
Devil's authority. They demanded, therefore, the 
punishment of these agents of hell, reminding the 
judges, that the province had been clear of witches 
since the burning of some on a former occasion. 
The accused were numerous, so many as threescore 
and ten witches and sorcerers being seized in the 
village of Mohra ; three-and-twenty confessed their 
crimes, and were sent to Faluna, where most of 
them were executed. Fifteen of the children were 
also led to death. Six-and-thirty of those who 
were young were forced to run the gauntlet, as it is 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT, 187 

called, and were, besides, lashed weekly at the church 
doors for a whole year. Twenty of the youngest 
were condemned to the .same discipline for three 
days only. 

The process seems to have consisted in confront- 
ing the children with the witches, and hearing the 
extraordinary story which the former insisted upon 
maintaining. The children, to the number of three 
hundred, were found more or less perfect in a tale 
as full of impossible absurdities as ever was told 
round a nursery fire. Their confession ran thus : 

They were taught by the witches to go to a cross 
way, and with certain ceremonies to invoke the Devil 
by the name of Antecessor, begging him to carry 
them off to Blockula, meaning, perhaps, the Brock- 
enberg, in the Hartz forest, a mountain infamous 
for being the common scene of witches' meetings, 
and to which Goethe represents the spirit Mephis- 
topheles as conducting his pupil Faustus. The Devil 
courteously appeared at the call of the children, in 
various forms, but chiefly as a mad Merry-Andrew, 
with a gray coat, red and blue stockings, a red beard, 
a high-crowned hat, with linen of various colours 
wrapped round it, and garters of peculiar length. He 
set each child on some beast of his providing, and 
anointed them with a certain unguent composed of 
the scrapings of altars, and the filings of church- 
clocks. There is here a discrepancy of evidence 
which, in another court, would have cast the whole. 
Most of the children considered their journey to be 
corporeal and actual. Some supposed, however, 
that their strength, or spirit, only travelled with the 
fiend, and that their body remained behind. Very 
few adopted this last hypothesis, though the parents 
unanimously bore witness, that the bodies of the 
children remained in bed, and could not be awakened 
out of a deep sleep, though they shook them for the 
purpose of awakening them. So strong was, never- 
theless,] the belief of nurses and mothers in their 



188 LETTERS ON 

actual transportation, that a sensible clergyman, men- 
tioned in the preface, who had resolved he would 
watch his son the whole night, and see what hag or 
fiend would take him from his arms, had the utmost 
difficulty, notwithstanding, in convincing his mother 
that the child had not been transported to Blockula, 
during the very night he held him in his embrace. 

The learned translator candidly allows, " out of 
so great a 'multitude as were accused, condemned, 
and executed, there might be some who suffered un- 
justly, and owed their death more to the malice of 
their enemies than to their skill in the black art, I will 
readily admit. Nor will I deny," he continues, "but 
that when the news of these transactions and ac- 
counts, how the children bewitched fell into fits and 
strange unusual postures, spread abroad in the king- 
dom, some fearful and credulous people, if they saw 
their children any way disordered, might think 
they were bewitched, or ready to be carried away 
by imps."* The learned gentleman here stops short 
in a train of reasoning, which, followed out, would 
have deprived the world of the benefit of his trans- 
lation. For, if it was possible that some of these 
unfortunate persons fell a sacrifice to the malice of 
their neighbours, or the prejudices of witnesses, as 
he seems ready to grant, is it not more reasonable 
to believe, that the whole of the accused were con- 
victed on similar grounds, than to allow, as truth, the 
slightest part of the gross and vulgar impossibilities 
upon which alone their execution can be justified ? 

The Blockula, which was the object of their jour- 
ney, was a house having a fine gate painted with 
divers colours, with a paddock, in which they turned 
the beasts to graze which had brought them to such 
scenes of revelry. If human beings had been em- 
ployed, they were left slumbering against the wall 
of the house. The plan of the Devil's palace con-* 

* Translator's Preface to Horneck's " Account of what happened in 
#ie Kingdom of Sweden." See Appendix to Glanville's work. 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 189 

sisted of one large banqueting apartment, and several 
with drawing-rooms. Their food was homely- 
enough, being broth made of coleworts and bacon, 
with bread and butter, and milk and cheese. The 
same acts of wickedness and profligacy were com- 
mitted at Blockula which are usually supposed to 
take place upon the Devil's Sabbath elsewhere ; but 
there was this particular, that the witches had sons 
and daughters by the fiends, who were married to- 
gether, and produced an offspring of toads and 
serpents. 

These confessions being delivered before the ac- 
cused witches, they at first stoutly denied them ; at 
last some of them burst into tears, and acquiesced in 
the horrors imputed to them. They said, the prac- 
tice of carrying off children had been enlarged very 
lately (which shows the whole rumours to have 
arisen recently) ; and the despairing wretches con- 
firmed what the children said, with many other ex- 
travagant circumstances, as the mode of elongating 
a goat's back by means of a spit, on which we care 
not to be particular. It is worth mentioning, that 
the Devil, desirous of enjoying his own reputation 
among his subjects, pretended at one time to be 
dead, and was much lamented at Blockula — but he 
soon revived again. 

Some attempts these witches had made to harm 
individuals on middle earth, but with little success. 
One old sorceress, indeed, attempted to strike a nail, 
given her by the Devil for that purpose, into the head 
of the minister of Elfland ; but as the scull was of 
unusual solidity, the reverend gentleman only felt a 
headache from her efforts. They could not be per- 
suaded to exhibit any of their tricks before the com- 
missioners, excusing themselves by alleging that 
their witchcraft had left them, and that the Devil had 
amused them with the vision of a burning pit, having 
a hand thrust out of it. 

The total number who lost their lives on this 






190, LETTERS ON 

singular occasion, was fourscore and four persons, 
including fifteen children; and at this expense of 
blood was extinguished a flame that arose as sud- 
denly, burned as fiercely, and decayed as rapidly, as 
any portent of the kind within the annals of super- 
stition. The commissioners returned to court with 
the high approbation of all concerned — prayers were 
ordered through the churches weekly, that Heaven 
would be pleased to restrain the powers of the Devil, 
and deliver the poor creatures who hitherto had 
groaned under it, as well as the innocent children, 
who were carried off by hundreds at once. 

If we could ever learn the true explanation of this 
story, we should probably find that the cry was led 
by some clever mischievous boy, who wished to 
apologize to his parents for lying an hour longer in 
the morning, by alleging he had been at Blockula 
on the preceding night ; and that the desire to be as 
much distinguished as their comrade, had stimulated 
the bolder and more acute of his companions to the 
like falsehoods ; while those of weaker minds as- 
sented, either from fear of punishment, or the force 
of dreaming over at night the horrors which were 
dinned into their ears all day. Those who were in- 
genuous, as it was termed, in their confessions, re- 
ceived praise and encouragement; and those who 
denied, or were silent, and, as it was considered, im- 
penitent, w T ere sure to bear the harder share of the 
punishment which was addressed to all. It is worth 
while also to observe, that the smarter children began 
to improve their evidence, and add touches to the 
general picture of Blockula. " Some of the children 
talked much of a white angel, which used to forbid 
them what the Devil bid them do, and told them that 
these doings should not last long. — And, they added, 
this better being would place himself sometimes 
at the door between the witches and the children, 
and when they came to Blockula. he pulled the 
phildren back, but the witches went in." 



I 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 191 

This additional evidence speaks for itself, and 
shows the whole tale to be the fiction of the children's 
imagination, which some of them wished to im- 
prove upon. The reader may consult, "An Ac- 
count of what happened in the Kingdom of Sweden 
in the years 1669 and 1670, and afterward translated 
out of High Dutch into English, by Dr. Antony 
Horneck," attached to Glanville's " Sadducismus 
Triumphatus." The translator refers to the evi- 
dence of Baron Sparr, ambassador from the court 
of Sweden to the court of England, in 1672 ; and 
that of Baron Lyonberg, envoy extraordinary of the 
same power, both of whom attest the confession and 
execution of the witches. The King of Sweden 
himself answered the express inquiries of the Duke 
of Holstein with marked reserve. " His judges and 
commissioners," he said, " had caused divers men, 
women, and children to be burned and executed, on 
such pregnant evidence as was brought before them. 
But whether the actions confessed, and proved 
against them, were real, or only the effects of strong 
imagination, he was not as yet able to determine ;" 
— a sufficient reason, perhaps, why punishment 
should have been at least deferred by the interposi- 
tion of the royal authority. 

We must now turn our eyes to Britain, in which 
our knowledge as to such events is necessarily more 
extensive, and where it is in a high degree more 
interesting to our present purpose. 



192 LETTERS ON 



LETTER VIII. 

The Effects of the Witch Superstition are to be traced in the Laws of a 
Kingdom— Usually punished in England as aCrime connected with Po- 
litics — Attempt at Murder for Witchcraft not in itself capital — Trials 
of Persons of Rank for Witchcraft, connected with State Crimes — 
Statutes of Henry VIII.— How Witchcraft was regarded by the three 
leading Sects of Religion in the Sixteenth Century; first, by the 
Catholics ; second, by the Calvinists ; third, by the Church of England 
and Lutherans— Impostures unwarily countenanced by individual 
Catholic Priests, and also by some Puritanic Clergymen — Statute of 
1562, and some Cases upon it— Case of Dugdale — Case of the Witches 
of Warbois, and Execution of the Family of Samuel— That of Jane 
Wenham, in which some Church of England Clergymen insisted on the 
Prosecution — Hutchison's Rebuke to them — James the First's Opinion 
of Witchcraft — His celebrated Statute, 1 Jac. I.— Canon passed by the 
Convocation against Possession — Case of Mr. Fairfax's Children — Lan- 
cashire Witches in 1613 — Another Discovery in 1634 — Webster's 
Account of the Manner in which the Imposture was managed — Supe- 
riority of the Calvinists is followed by a severe Prosecution of 
Witches— Executions in Suffolk, &c. to a dreadful Extent— Hopkins, 
the pretended Witchfinder, the Cause of these Cruelties — His brutal 
Practices — His Letter — Execution of Mr. Lovvis — Hopkins punished — 
Restoration of Charles — Trial of Coxe — of Dunny and Callender be- 
fore Lord Hales — Royal Society and Progress of Knowledge — Somer- 
setshire Witches — Opinions of the Populace— A Woman swum for 
Witchcraft at Oakly— Murder at Tring— Act against Witchcraft 
abolished, and the Belief in the Crime becomes forgotten — Witch 
Trials in New-England — Dame Glover's Trial — Affliction of the 
Parvises, and frightful Increase of the Prosecutions — Suddenly put a 
stop to— The Penitence of those concerned in them. 

Our account of Demonology in England must 
naturally, as in every other country, depend chiefly 
on the instances which history contains of the laws 
and prosecutions against witchcraft. Other super- 
stitions arose and decayed, were dreaded or despised, 
without greater embarrassment, in the provinces in 
which they have a temporary currency, than that 
cowards and children go out more seldom at night, 
while the reports of ghosts and fairies are peculiarly 
current. But when the alarm of witchcraft arises, 
Superstition dips her hand in the blood of the persons 
accused, and records in the annals of jurisprudence 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 193 

their trials, and the causes alleged in vindication 
of their execution. Respecting other fantastic alle- 
gations, the proof is necessarily transient and doubt- 
ful, depending upon the inaccurate testimony of vague 
report and of doting tradition. But in cases of witch- 
craft, we have before us the recorded- evidence upon 
which judge and jury acted, and can form an opinion 
with some degree of certainty of the grounds, real or 
fanciful, on which they acquitted or condemned. It 
is, therefore, in tracing this part of Demonology, 
with its accompanying circumstances, that we have 
the best chance of obtaining an accurate view of our 
subject. 

The existence of witchcraft was, no doubt, received 
and credited in England, as in the countries on the 
Continent, and originally punished accordingly. But 
after the fourteenth century, the practices which fell 
under such a description were thought unworthy of 
any peculiar animadversion, unless they were con- 
nected with something which would have been of 
itself a capital crime, by whatever means it had been 
either essayed or accomplished. Thus, the supposed 
paction between a witch and the demon was perhaps 
deemed in itself to have terrors enough to prevent its 
becoming an ordinary crime, and was not, therefore, 
visited with any statutory penalty. But to attempt 
or execute bodily harm to others, through means of 
evil spirits, or, in a word, by the black art, was action- 
able at common law, as much as if the party accused 
had done the same harm with an arrow or pistol- 
shot. The destruction or abstraction of goods by the 
like instruments, supposing the charge proved, would, 
in like manner, be punishable. A fortiori, the con- 
sulting soothsayers, familiar spirits, or the like, and 
the obtaining and circulating pretended prophecies, 
to the unsettlement of the state, and the endangering 
of the king's title, is yet a higher degree of guilt. 
And it may be remarked, that the inquiry into the 
date of the king's life bears a close affinity with the 
R 



194 LETTERS ON 

desiring or compassing the death of the sovereign, 
which is the essence of high-treason. Upon such 
charges, repeated trials took place in the courts of 
the English, and condemnations were pronounced, 
with sufficient justice, no doubt, where the connexion 
between the resort to sorcerers, and the design to per- 
petrate a felony, could be clearly proved. We would 
not, indeed, be disposed to go the length of so high 
an authority as Selden, who pronounces (in his 
Table-talk), that if a man heartily believed that he 
could take the life of another by waving his hat 
three times, and crying Buzz ! and should, under this 
fixed opinion, wave his hat and cry, Buzz ! accord- 
ingly, he ought to be executed as a murderer. But a 
false prophecy of the king's death is not to be dealt 
with exactly on the usual principle ; because, how- 
ever idle in itself, the promulgation of such a predic- 
tion has, in times such as we are speaking of, a 
strong tendency to work its completion. 

Many persons, and some of great celebrity, suf- 
fered for the charge of trafficking with witches, to 
the prejudice of those in authority. We have already 
mentioned the instance of the Dutchess of Glou- 
cester, in Henry the Sixth's reign, and that of the 
Queen Dowager's kinsmen, in the Protectorate of 
Richard, afterward the Third. In 1521, the Duke 
of Buckingham was beheaded, owing much to his 
having listened to the predictions of one Friar Hop- 
kins. In the same reign, the Maid of Kent, who 
had been esteemed a prophetess, was put to death as 
a cheat. She suffered with seven persons who had 
managed her fits for the support of the Catholic 
religion, and confessed her fraud upon the scaffold. 
About seven years after this, Lord Hungerford was 
beheaded for consulting certain soothsayers concern- 
ing the length of Henry the Eighth's life. But these 
cases rather relate to the purpose for which the 
sorcery was employed, than to the fact of using it. 

Two remarkable statutes were passed in the year 



DEMOXOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 195 

1541 ; one against false prophecies, the other against 
the act of conjuration, witchcraft, and sorcery, and, 
at the same time, against breaking and destroying 
crosses. The former enactment was certainly made 
to ease the suspicious and wayward fears of the 
tetchy King Henry. The prohibition against witch- 
craft might be also dictated by the king's jealous 
doubts of hazard to the succession. The enactment 
against breaking crosses was obviously designed to 
check the ravages of the reformers, who, in England 
as well as elsewhere, desired to sweep away Popery 
with the besom of destruction. This latter statute 
was abrogated in the first year of Edward VI-, per- 
haps as placing an undue restraint on the zeal of 
good Protestants against idolatry. 

At length, in 1562, a formal statute against sorcery, 
as penal in itself, was actually passed ; but as the 
penalty was limited to the pillory for the first trans- 
gression, the legislature probably regarded those who 
might be brought to trial as impostors rather than 
wizards. There are instances of individuals tried 
and convicted as impostors and cheats, and who ac- 
knowledged themselves such before the court and 
people : but in their articles of visitation, the prelates 
directed inquiry to be made after those who should 
use enchantments, witchcraft, sorcery, or any like 
craft, invented by the Devil. 

But it is here proper to make a pause, for the pur- 
pose of inquiring in what manner the religious dis- 
putes which occupied all Europe about this time^ in- 
fluenced the proceedings of the rival sects in relation 
to Demonology. 

The Papal church had long reigned by the proud 
and absolute humour which she had assumed, of 
maintaining every doctrine which her rulers had 
adopted in dark ages ; but this pertinacity at length 
made her citadel too large to be defended at every 
point, by a garrison whom prudence would have re- 
quired to abandon positions which had been taken 



19$ LETTERS ON 

in times of darkness, and were unsuited to the war- 
fare of a more enlightened age. The sacred motto 
of the Vatican was, " Vestigia nulla retrorsum ;" and 
this rendered it impossible to comply with the more 
wise and moderate of her own party, who would 
otherwise have desired to make liberal concessions 
to the Protestants, and thus prevent, in its commence- 
ment, a formidable schism in the Christian world. 

To the system of Rome the Calvinists offered 
the most determined opposition, affecting, upon eveiy 
occasion, and on all points, to observe an order of 
church-government, as well as of worship, expressly 
in the teeth of its enactments ; — in a word, to be a 
good Protestant, they held it almost essential to be, 
in all things, diametrically opposite to the Catholic 
form and faith. As the foundation of this sect was 
laid in republican states ; as its clerical discipline was 
settled on a democratic basis ; and as the countries 
which adopted that form of government were chiefly 
poor, the preachers, having lost the rank and opulence 
enjoyed by the Roman Church, were gradually thrown 
on the support of the people. Insensibly they be- 
came occupied with the ideas and tenets natural to 
the common people, which, if they have usually the 
merit of being honestly conceived and boldly ex- 
pressed, are not the less often adopted with credulity 
and precipitation, and carried into effect with unhesi- 
tating harshness and severity. 

Between these extremes the Churchmen of England 
endeavoured to steer a middle course, retaining a por- 
tion of the ritual and forms of Rome, as in them- 
selves admirable, and at any rate too greatly venerated 
by the people, to be changed merely for opposition's 
sake. Their comparatively undilapidated revenue, 
the connexion of their system with the state, with 
views of ambition as ample as the station of a 
churchman ought to command, rendered them inde- 
pendent of the necessity of courting their flocks by 
any means save regular discharge of their duty ; and 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 197 

the excellent provisions made for their education 
afforded them learning to confute ignorance, and en- 
lighten prejudice. 

Such being the general character of the three 
Churches, their belief in, and persecution of, such 
crimes as witchcraft and sorcery, were necessarily 
modelled upon the peculiar tenets which each system 
professed, and gave rise to various results in the 
countries where they were severally received. 

The Church of Rome, as we have seen, was un- 
willing, in her period of undisputed power, to call in 
the secular arm to punish men for witchcraft, a crime 
which fell especially under ecclesiastical cognizance, 
and could, according to her belief, be subdued by the 
spiritual arm alone. The learned men at the head 
of the establishment might safely despise the attempt 
at those hidden arts as impossible ; or, even if they 
were of a more credulous disposition, they might be 
unwilling to make laws by which their own inquiries 
in the mathematics, algebra, chymistry, and other 
pursuits vulgarly supposed to approach the confines 
of magic art, might be inconveniently restricted. 
The more selfish part of the priesthood might think 
that a general belief in the existence of witches 
should be permitted to remain, as a source both of 
power and of revenue — that if there were no pos- 
sessions, there could be no exorcism-fees — and, in 
short, that a wholesome faith in all the absurdities 
of the vulgar creed, as to supernatural influences, was 
necessary to maintain the influence of Diana of 
Ephesus. They suffered spells to be manufactured, 
since every friar had the power of reversing them — 
they pennitted poison to be distilled, because every 
convent had the antidote, which was disposed of to 
all who chose to demand it. It was not till the uni- 
versal progress of heresy, in the end of the fifteenth 
century, that the bull of Pope Innocent VIII., already 
quoted, called to convict, imprison, and condemn the 
sorcerers, chiefly because it was the object to transfer 
R2 



198 LETTERS ON 

the odium of these crimes to the Waldenses, and 
excite and direct the public hatred against the new 
sect, by confounding their doctrines with the influ- 
ences of the Devil and his Fiends. The bull of Pope 
Innocent was afterward, in the year 1523, enforced 
by Adrian VI., with a new one, in which excommu- 
nication was directed against sorcerers and heretics. 

While Rome thus positively declared herself 
against witches and sorcerers, the Calvinists, in whose 
numbers must be included the greater part of the 
English Puritans, who, though they had not finally 
severed from the communion of the Anglican Chinch, 
yet disapproved of her ritual and ceremonies, as re- 
taining too much of the Papal stamp, ranked them- 
selves, in accordance with their usual policy, in 
diametrical opposition to the doctrine of the Mother 
Church. They assumed in the opposite sense what- 
ever Rome pretended to as a proof of her omnipotent 
authority. The exorcisms, forms, and rites by which 
good Catholics believed that incarnate fiends could 
be expelled, and evil spirits of every kind rebuked — 
these, like the holy water, the robes of the priest, 
and the sign of the cross, the Calvinists considered 
either with scorn and contempt, as the tools of de- 
liberate quackery and imposture, or with horror and 
loathing, as the fit emblems and instruments of an 
idolatrous system. 

Such of them as did not absolutely deny the super- 
natural powers of which the Romanists made boast, 
regarded the success of the exorcising priest, to 
whatever extent they admitted it, as at best a cast- 
ing out of devils by the power of Beelzebub, the 
King of the Devils. They saw also, and resented 
bitterly, the attempt to confound any dissent from 
the doctrines of Rome with the proneness to an en- 
couragement of rites of sorcery. On the whole, the 
Calvinists, generally speaking, were, of all the con- 
tending sects, the most suspicious of sorcery, the 
most undoubting believers in its existence, and the 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 199 

most eager to follow it up with what they conceived 
to be the due punishment of the most fearful of 
crimes. 

The leading divines of the Church of England 
were, without doubt, fundamentally as much op- 
posed to the doctrines of Rome, as those who alto- 
gether disclaimed opinions and ceremonies, merely 
because she had entertained them. But their posi- 
tion in society tended strongly to keep them from 
adopting, on such subjects as we are now discussing, 
cither the eager credulity of the vulgar mind, or the 
fanatic ferocity of their Calvinistic rivals. We have 
no purpose to discuss the matter in detail — enough 
has probably been said to show generally why the 
Romanist should have cried out a miracle, respect- 
ing an incident which the Anglican would have con- 
temptuously termed an imposture; while the Cal- 
vinist, inspired with a darker zeal, and, above all, 
with the unceasing desire of open controversy with 
the Catholics, would have styled the same event an 
operation of the Devil. 

It followed, that while the divines of the Church 
of England possessed the upper hand in the king- 
dom, witchcraft, though trials and even condemna- 
tions for that offence occasionally occurred, did not 
create that epidemic terror which the very suspicion 
of the offence earned with it elsewhere ; so that 
Reginald Scot and others alleged, it was the vain 
pretences and empty forms of the Church of Rome, 
by the faith reposed in them, which had led to the 
belief of witchcraft or sorcery in general. Nor did 
prosecutions on account of such charges frequently 
involve a capital punishment, while learned judges 
were jealous of the imperfection of the evidence to 
support the charge, and entertained a strong and 
growing suspicion that legitimate grounds for such 
trials seldom actually existed. On the other hand, 
it usually happened that wherever the Calvinist in- 
terest became predominant in Britain, a general per- 



200 LETTERS ON 

secution of sorcerers and witches seemed to take 
place of consequence. Fearing and hating sorcery 
more than other Protestants, connecting its cere- 
monies and usages with those of the detested Catho- 
lic Church, the Calvinists were more eager than 
other sects in searching after the traces of this 
crime, and, of course, unusually successful, as they 
might suppose, in making discoveries of guilt, and 
pursuing it to the expiation of the fagot. In a word, 
a principle already referred to by Dr. Francis Hut- 
chison, will be found to rule the tide and the reflux 
of such cases in the different churches. The num- 
bers of witches, and their supposed dealings with 
Satan, will increase or decrease according as such 
doings are accounted probable or impossible. Under 
the former supposition, charges and convictions will 
be found augmented in a terrific degree. When the 
accusations are disbelieved, and dismissed as not 
worthy of attention, the crime becomes unfrequent, 
ceases to occupy the public mind, and affords little 
trouble to the judges. 

The passing of Elizabeth's statute against witch- 
craft in 1562 does not seem to have been intended 
to increase the number of trials, or cases of convic- 
tion at least ; and the fact is, it did neither the one 
nor the other. Two children were tried in 1574 for 
counterfeiting possession, and stood in the pillory 
for impostors. Mildred Norrington, called the Maid 
of Westwell, furnished another instance of posses- 
sion; but she also confessed her imposture, and 
publicly showed her fits and tricks of mimicry. The 
strong influence already possessed by the Puritans 
may probably be sufficient to account for the darker 
issue of certain cases, in which both juries and 
judges, in Elizabeth's time, must be admitted to 
have shown fearful severity. 

These cases of possession were in some respects 
sore snares to the priests of the Church of Rome, 
who, while they were too sagacious not to be aware 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 201 

that the pretended fits, contortions, strange sounds, 
and other extravagances, produced as evidence of 
the demon's influence on the possessed person, were 
nothing else than marks of imposture by some idle 
vagabond, were nevertheless often tempted to admit 
them as real, and take the credit of curing them. 
The period w r as one when the Catholic Chinch had 
much occasion to rally around her all the respect 
that remained to her in a schismatic and heretical 
kingdom; and when her fathers and doctors an- 
nounced the existence of such a dreadful disease, 
and of the power of the church's prayers, relics, and 
ceremonies, to cure it, it was difficult for a priest, 
supposing him more tender of the interest of his 
order than that of truth, to avoid such a tempting 
opportunity as a supposed case of possession offered, 
for displaying the high privilege in which his pro- 
fession made him a partaker, or to abstain from con- 
niving at the imposture, in order to obtain for his 
church the credit of expelling the demon. It was 
hardly to be wondered at, if the ecclesiastic was 
sometimes induced to aid the fraud of which such 
motives forbade him to be the detector. At this he 
might hesitate the less, as he was not obliged to 
adopt the suspected and degrading course of holding 
an immediate communication in limine with the im- 
postor, since a hint or two, dropped in the supposed 
sufferer's presence, might give him the necessary 
information what was the most exact mode of per- 
forming his part, and if the patient was possessed 
by a devil of any acuteness or dexterity, he wanted 
no farther instruction how to play it. Such combi- 
nations were sometimes detected, and brought more 
discredit on the Church of Rome than was counter- 
balanced by any which might be more cunningly 
managed. On this subject, the reader may turn to 
Dr. Harsnett's celebrated book on Popish Impos- 
tures, wherein he gives the history of several noto- 
rious cases of detected fraud, in which Roman eccle- 



202 LETTERS ON 

siastics had not hesitated to mingle themselves. 
That of Grace Sowerbutts, instructed by a Catholic 
priest to impeach her grandmother of witchcraft, 
was a very gross fraud. 

Such cases were not, however, limited to the eccle- 
siastics of Rome. We have already stated, that, as 
extremes usually approach each other, the Dis- 
senters, in their violent opposition to the Papists, 
adopted some of their ideas respecting demoniacs ; 
and, we have now to add, that they also claimed, 
by the vehemence of prayer, and the authority of 
their own sacred commission, that power of expel- 
ling devils, which the Church of Rome pretended 
to exercise by rites, ceremonies, and relics. The 
memorable case of Richard Dugdale, called the Sur- 
rey Impostor, was one of the most remarkable 
which the Dissenters brought forward. This youth 
was supposed to have sold his soul to the Devil on 
condition of being made the best dancer in Lanca- 
shire, and during his possession played a number of 
fantastic tricks, not much different from those ex- 
hibited by expert posture-masters of the present 
day. This person threw himself into the hands of 
the Dissenters, who, in their eagerness, caught at an 
opportunity to relieve an afflicted person, whose case 
the regular clergy appeared to have neglected. 
They fixed a committee of their number, who 
weekly attended the supposed sufferer, and exercised 
themselves in appointed days of humiliation and 
fasting, during the course of a whole year. All re- 
spect for the demon seems to have abandoned the 
reverend gentlemen, after they had relieved guard 
in this manner for some little time, and they got so 
regardless of Satan as to taunt him with the mode ill 
which he executed his promise to teach his vassal 
dancing. The following specimen of raillery is 
worth commemoration : — " What, Satan ! is this the 
dancing that Richard gave himself to thee for 1 &c. 
Canst thou dance no better 1 &c. Ransack the old 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 203 

records of all past times and peaces in thy memory : 
canst thou not there find out some better way of 
trampling ] Pump thine invention dry : cannot the 
universal seed-plot of subtile wiles and stratagems 
spring up one new method of cutting capers 1 Is 
this the top of skill and pride, to shuffle feet and 
brandish knees thus, and to trip like a doe, and skip 
like a squirrel ] And wherein differ thy le apings from 
the hoppings of a frog, or the bouncings of a goat, 
or friskings of a dog, or gesticulations of a monkey \ 
And cannot a palsy shake such a loose leg as that % 
Dost thou not twirl like a calf that hath the turn, 
and twitch up thy houghs just like a springhault 
tit ?"* One might almost conceive the demon re- 
plying to this raillery in the words of Dr. Johnson, 
" This merriment of parsons is extremely offen- 
sive." 

The Dissenters were probably too honest, however 
simple, to achieve a complete cure on Dugdale by 
an amicable understanding; so, after their year of 
vigil, they relinquished their task by degrees. Dug- 
dale, weary of his illness, which now attracted little 
notice, attended a regular physician, and was cured 
of that part of his disease which was not affected, 
in a regular way, par ordonnance du midecin. But 
the reverend gentlemen who had taken his case in 
hand still assumed the credit of curing him, and if 
any thing could have induced them to sing Te Deum, 
it would have been this occasion. They said that 
the effect of their public prayers had been for a time 
suspended, until seconded by the continued earnest- 
ness of their private devotions ! ! 

The ministers of the Church of England, though, 
from education, intercourse with the world, and 
other advantages, they were less prone to prejudice 
than those of other sects, are yet far from being 
entirely free of the charge of encouraging in 

* Hutchison on Witchcraft, p. 162. 



204 BETTERS ON 

particular instances the witch superstition. Even 
while Dr. Hutchison pleads that the Church of 
England has the least to answer for in that matter, 
he is under the necessity of acknowledging, that 
some regular country clergymen so far shared the 
rooted prejudices of congregations, and of the go- 
vernment which established laws against it, as to be 
active in the persecution of the suspected, and even 
in countenancing the superstitious signs by which 
in that period the vulgar thought it possible to ascer- 
tain the existence of the afflictions by witchcraft, 
and obtain the knowledge of the perpetrator. A sin- 
gular case is mentioned of three women, called the 
Witches of Warbois. Indeed, their story is a mat- 
ter of solemn enough record ; for Sir Samuel Crom- 
well, having received the sum of forty pounds as 
lord of the manor, out of the estate of the poor per- 
sons who suffered, turned it into a rent charge of 
forty shillings yearly, for the endowment of an an- 
nual lecture on the subject of witchcraft, to be 
preached by a doctor or bachelor of divinity of 
Queen's College, Cambridge. The accused, one 
Samuel and his wife, were old, and very poor per- 
sons, and their daughter a young woman. The 
daughter of a Mr. Throgmorton, seeing the poor old 
woman in a black knitted cap, at a time when she 
was not very well, took a whim that she had be- 
witched her, and was ever after exclaiming against 
her. The other children of this fanciful family 
caught up the same cry, and the eldest of them at 
last got up a vastly pretty drama, in which she her- 
self furnished all the scenes, and played all the 
parts. 

Such imaginary scenes, or make-believe stories, are 
the common amusement of lively children; and 
most readers may remember having had some Utopia 
of their own. But the nursery drama of Miss 
Throgmorton had a horrible conclusion. Thi s young 
lady and her sisters were supposed to be haunted by 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 205 

nine spirits, despatched by the wicked Mother Samuel 
for that purpose. The sapient parents heard one 
part of the dialogue, when the children in their fits 
returned answers, as was supposed, to the spirits 
who afflicted them ; and when the patients from time 
to time recovered, they furnished the counterpart 
by telling what the spirits had said to them. The 
names of the spirits were Pluck, Hardname, Catch, 
Blue, ard three Smacks, who were cousins. Mrs. 
Joan Throgmorton, the eldest (who, like other 
young women of her age, about fifteen, had some 
disease on her nerves, and whose fancy ran appa- 
rently on love and gallantry), supposed that one of 
the Smacks was her lover, did battle for her with the 
less friendly spirits, and promised to protect her 
against Mother Samuel herself; and the following 
curious extract will show on what a footing of fa- 
miliarity the damsel stood with her spiritual gallant ; 
" • From whence come you, Mr. Smack V says the 
afflicted young lady ; * and what news do you bring 1 
Smack, nothing abashed, informed her he came from 
fighting with Pluck : the weapons, great cowl-staves, 
— the scene, a ruinous bakehouse in Dame Samuel's 
yard. ' And who got the mastery, I pray* you V said 
the damsel. Smack answered, he had broken Pluck's 
head. ' I would,' said the damsel, ' he had broken 
your neck also.' — ' Is that the thanks I am to have 
for my labour V said the disappointed Smack. ' Look 
you for thanks at my hand]' said the distressed 
maiden. ' I would you were all hanged up against 
each other, with your dame for company, for you 
are all naught.' " On this repulse, exit Smack, and 
enter Pluck, Blue, and Catch, the first with his head 
broken, the other limping, and the third with his arm 
in a sling, all trophies of Smack's victory. They 
disappeared, after having threatened vengeance upon 
the conquering Smack. However, he soon after- 
ward appeared with his laurels. He told her of his 
various conflicts. " ' I wonder,' said Mrs. Joan, or 
S 



206 LETTERS ON 

Jane, ' that you are able to beat them ; you are little, 
and they very big.' — ' He cared not for that,' he re- 
plied ; ' he would beat the best two of them, and his 
cousins Smacks would beat the other two.' " This 
most pitiful mirth, for such it certainly is, was mixed 
with tragedy enough. Miss Throgmorton and her 
sisters railed against Dame Samuel ; and when Mr. 
Throgmorton brought her to his house by force, the 
little fiends longed to draw blood of her, scratch her, 
and torture her, as the witch-creed of that period re- 
commended; yet the poor woman incurred deeper 
suspicion when she expressed a wish to leave a house 
where she was so coarsely treated, and lay under 
such odious suspicions. 

It was in vain that this unhappy creature endea- 
voured to avert their resentment, by submitting to all 
the ill usage they chose to put upon her; in vain 
that she underwent, unresistingly, the worst usage 
at the hand of Lady Cromwell, her landlady, who, 
abusing her with the worst epithets, tore her cap from 
her head, clipped out some of her hair, and gave it to 
Mrs. Throgmorton, to burn it for a counter-charm. 
Nay, Mother Samuel's complaisance in the latter 
case only led to a new charge. It happened that the 
Lady Cromwell, on her return home, dreamed of her 
day's work, and especially of the old dame and her 
cat ; and as her ladyship died in a year and quarter 
from that very day, it was sagaciously concluded 
that she must have fallen a victim to the witcheries 
of the terrible Dame Samuel. Mr. Throgmorton 
also compelled the old woman and her daughter to 
use expressions which put their lives in the power 
of these malignant children, who had carried on the 
farce so long that they could not well escape from 
their own web of deceit but by the death of these 
helpless creatures : for example, the prisoner, Dame 
Samuel, was induced to say to the supposed spirit, 
" As I am a witch, and a causer of Lady Cromwell's 
death, I charge thee to come out of the maiden." 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 207 

The girl lay still ; and this was accounted a proof 
that the poor woman, who, only subdued and crushed 
by terror and tyranny, did as she was bidden, was a 
witch. One is ashamed of an English judge and 
jury, when it must be repeated, that the evidence of 
these enthusiastic and giddy-pated girls was deemed 
sufficient to the condemnation of three innocent per- 
sons. Goody Samuel, indeed, was at length worried 
into a confession of her guilt, by the various vexations 
which were practised on her. But her husband and 
daughter continued to maintain their innocence. 
The last showed a high spirit, and proud value for 
her character. She was advised by some, who 
pitied her youth, to gain at least a respite by plead- 
ing pregnancy ; to which she answered disdainfully, 
" No, I will not be both held witch and strumpet !" 
The mother, to show her sanity of mind, and the 
real value of her confession, caught at the advice re- 
commended to her daughter. As her years put such 
a plea out of the question, there was a laugh among 
the unfeeling audience, in which the poor old victim 
joined loudly and heartily. Some there were who 
thought it no joking matter, and were inclined to 
think they had a Joanna Southcote before them, and 
that the Devil must be the father. These unfortunate 
Samuels were condemned at Huntingdon, before Mr. 
Justice Fenner, 4th April, 1593. It was a singular 
case to be commemorated by an annual lecture, as 
provided by Sir Samuel Cromwell ; for the purposes 
of Justice were never so perverted, nor her sword 
turned to a more flagrant murder. 

We may here mention, though mainly for the sake 
of contrast, the much-disputed case of Jane Wenham, 
the witch of Walkerne, as she was termed ; which 
was of a much later date. Some of the country 
clergy were carried away by the landflood of super- 
stition in this instance also, and not only encouraged 
the charge, but gave their countenance to some of 
the ridiculous and indecent tricks resorted to as 



208 LETTERS ON 

proofs of witchcraft by the lowest vulgar. But the 
good sense of the judge, seconded by that of other 
reflecting and sensible persons, saved the country 
from the ultimate disgrace attendant on too many of 
these unhallowed trials. The usual sort of evidence 
was brought against this poor woman, by pretences 
of bewitched persons vomiting fire ; a trick very 
easy to those who chose to exhibit such a piece of 
jugglery, among such as rather desire to be taken in 
by it, than to detect the imposture. The witchfinder 
practised upon her the most vulgar and ridiculous 
tricks, or charms ; and out of a perverted examina- 
tion, they drew what they called a confession, though 
of a forced and mutilated character. Under such 
proof the jury brought her in guilty, and she was 
necessarily condemned to die. More fortunate, how- 
ever, than many persons placed in the like circum- 
stances, Jane Wenham was tried before a sensible 
and philosophic judge, who could not understand that 
the 'life of an Englishwoman, however mean, should 
be taken away by a set of barbarous tricks and ex- 
periments, the efficacy of which depended on popular 
credulity. He reprieved the witch before he left the 
assize town. The rest of the history is equally a 
contrast to some we have told, and others we shall 
have to recount. A humane and high-spirited gen- 
tleman, Colonel Plummer of Gilston, putting at defi- 
ance popular calumny, placed the poor old woman 
in a small house near his own, and under his imme- 
diate protection. Here she lived and died, in honest 
and fair reputation, edifying her visiters by her ac- 
curacy and attention in repeating her devotions ; and, 
removed from her brutal and malignant neighbours, 
never afterward gave the slightest cause of suspicion 
or offence till her dying day. As this was one of 
the last cases of conviction in England, Dr. Hutchi- 
son has been led to dilate upon it with some strength 
of eloquence as well as argument. 
He thus expostulates with some of the better 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 209 

class that were eager for the prosecution: — "1. 
What single fact of sorcery did this Jane Wendham 
do 1 What charm did she use, or what act of witch- 
craft could you prove upon her 1 Laws are against 
evil actions, that can be proved to be of the person's 
doing — What single fact that was against the statute 
could you fix upon her ? I ask, 2. Did she so much 
as speak an imprudent word, or do an immoral ac- 
tion, that you could put into the narrative of her case 1 
When she was denied a few turnips, she laid them 
down very submissively — when she was called witch, 
and bitch, she only took the proper means for the 
vindication of her good name — when she saw this 
stonn coming upon her, she lock'd herself in her 
own house, and tried to keep herself out of your 
cruel hands — When her door was broken open, and 
you gave way to that barbarous usage that she met 
with, she protested her innocence, fell upon her 
knees, and begg'd she might not go to gaol, and, in 
her innocent simplicity, would have let you swim 
her ; and at her tryal, she declar'd herself a clear 
woman. This was her behaviour ; and what could 
any of us have done better, excepting in that case 
where she comply'd with you too much, and offered 
to let you swim her 1 

"3. When you used the meanest of paganish 
and popish superstitions — when you scratch'd, and 
mangled, and ran pins into her flesh, and used that 
ridiculous tryal of the bottle, &c. — whom did you 
consult — and from whom did you expect your an- 
swers ] who was your father — and into whose hands 
did you put yourselves 1 and if the true sense of 
the statute had been ttirn'd upon you, which way 
would you have defended yourselves 1 4. Durst 
you have used her in this maimer if she had been 
rich ; and doth not her poverty increase rather than 
lessen your guilt in what you did 1 

" And therefore, instead of closing your book with 
a liberavimus animas nostras, and reflecting upon the 
S 2 



210 LETTERS ON 

court, I ask you, 5. Whether you have not more reason 
to give God thanks that you met with a wise judge, 
and a sensible gentleman, who kept you from shed- 
ding innocent blood, and reviving the meanest and 
crudest of all superstitions among us ?"* 

But although individuals of the English church 
might, on some occasions, be justly accused of falling 
into lamentable errors on a subject where error was 
so general, it was not an usual point of their pro- 
fessional character ; and it must be admitted, that the 
most severe of the laws against witchcraft originated 
with a Scottish King of England ; and that the only 
extensive persecution following that statute, occurred 
during the time of the Civil Wars, when the Cal- 
vinists obtained, for a short period, a predominating 
influence in the councils of Parliament. 

James succeeded to Elizabeth amid the highest 
expectations on the part of his new people, who, 
besides their general satisfaction at coming once 
more under the rule of a king, were also proud of 
his supposed abilities and real knowledge of books 
and languages, and were naturally, though impru- 
dently, disposed to gratify him by deferring to his 
judgment in matters wherein his studies were sup- 
posed to have rendered him a special proficient. 
Unfortunately, besides the more harmless freak of 
becoming a Prentice in the art of Poetry, by which 
words and numbers were the only sufferers, the mo- 
narch had composed a deep work upon Demonology, 
embracing, in their fullest extent, the most absurd 
and gross of the popular errors on this subject. He 
considered his crown and life as habitually aimed at 
by the sworn slaves of Satan. Several had been ex- 
ecuted for an attempt to poison him by magical arts ; 
and the turbulent Francis Stewart, Earl of Bothwell, 
whose repeated attempts on his person had long been 
James's terror, had begun his course of rebellion by 

* Hutchison's Essay on Witchcraft, p. 166= 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 211 

a consultation with the weird sisters and soothsayers. 
Thus the king, who had proved with his pen the 
supposed sorcerers to be the direct enemies of the 
Deity, and who conceived he knew them from expe- 
rience to be his own, who, moreover, had, upon much 
lighter occasions (as in the case of Vorstius), showed 
no hesitation at throwing his royal authority into the 
scale to aid his arguments, very naturally used his 
influence when it was at the highest, to extend and 
enforce the laws against a crime which he both hated 
and feared. 

The English statute against witchcraft, passed in 
the very first year of that reign, is therefore of a 
most special nature, describing witchcraft by all the 
various modes and ceremonies in which, according to 
King James's fancy, that crime could be perpetrated ; 
each of which was declared felony, without benefit 
of clergy. 

This gave much wider scope to prosecution on 
the statute than had existed under the milder acts of 
Elizabeth. Men might now be punished for the 
practice of witchcraft, as itself a crime, without 
necessary reference to the ulterior objects of the 
perpetrator. It is remarkable, that in the same year, 
when the legislature rather adopted the passions and 
fears of the king, than expressed their own, by this 
fatal enactment, the Convocation of the Church 
evinced a very different spirit ; for, seeing the ridi- 
cule brought on their sacred profession by forward 
and presumptuous men, in the attempt to relieve 
demoniacs from a disease which was commonly oc- 
casioned by natural causes, if not the mere creature 
of imposture, they passed a canon, establishing that 
no minister or ministers should in future attempt to 
expel any devil or devils, without the license of his 
bishop ; thereby virtually putting a stop to a fertile 
source of knavery among the people, and disgraceful 
folly among the inferior churchmen. 
The new statute of James does not, however, appeal 



212 LETTERS ON 

to have led at first to many prosecutions. One of 
the most remarkable was (proh pndor!) instigated 
by a gentleman, a scholar of classical taste, and a 
beautiful poet, being no other than Edward Fairfax, 
of Fayston, in Knaresborough Forest, the translator 
of Tasso's "Jerusalem Delivered." In allusion to 
his credulity on such subjects, Collins has introduced 
the following elegant lines : 

" How have I sate while piped the pensive wind, 
To hear thy harp, by British Fairfax strung ; 
Prevailing poet, whose un doubting mind 
Believed the magic wonders which he sung !" 

Like Mr. ;Throgmorton in the Warbois case, Mr 
Fairfax accused six of his neighbours of tormenting 
his children by fits of an extraordinary kind, by imps, 
and by appearing before the afflicted in their own shape 
during the crisis of these operations. The admitting 
this last circumstance to be a legitimate mode of 
proof, gave a most cruel advantage against the 
accused, for it could not, according to the ideas of 
the demonologists, be confuted even by the most 
distinct alibi. To a defence of that sort, it was 
replied, that the afflicted person did not see the actual 
witch, whose corporeal presence must indeed have 
been obvious to every one in the room as well as to the 
afflicted, but that the evidence of the sufferers related 
to the appearance of their spectre, or apparition ; and 
this was accounted a sure sign of guilt in those whose 
forms were so manifesed during the fits of the 
afflicted, and who were complained of and cried out 
upon by the victim. The obvious tendency of this 
doctrine, as to visionary or spectral evidence, as it 
was called, was to place the life and fame of the 
accused in the power of any hypochondriac patient 
or malignant impostor, who might either seem to see, 
or aver she saw, the spectrum of the accused old man 
or old woman, as if enjoying and urging on the 
afflictions which she complained of; and, strange to 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 213 

tell, the fatal sentence was to rest not upon the truth 
of the witnesses' eyes, but that of their imagina- 
tion. It happened fortunately for Fairfax's memo- 
ry, that the objects of his prosecution were persons 
of good character, and that the judge was a man 
of sense, and made so wise and skilful a charge to 
the jury, that they brought in a verdict of Not 
Guilty. 

The celebrated case of " the Lancashire witches" 
(whose name was, and will be, long remembered, 
partly from Shadwell's play, but more from the in- 
genious and well-merited compliment to the beauty 
of the females of that province, which it was held to 
contain) followed soon after. Whether the first no- 
tice of this sorcery sprung from the idle head of a 
mischievous boy, is uncertain ; but there is no doubt 
that it was speedily caught up and fostered for the 
purpose of gain. The original story ran thus : 

These Lancaster trials were at two periods, the 
one in 1613, before Sir James Altham and Sir Ed- 
ward Bromley, Barons of Exchequer, when nineteen 
witches were tried at once at Lancaster, and another 
of the name of Preston, at York. The report against 
these people is drawn up by Thomas Potts. An 
obliging correspondent sent me a sight of a copy of 
this curious and rare book. The chief personage in 
the drama is Elizabeth Southam, a witch redoubted 
under the name of Dembdike, an account of whom 
may be seen in Mr. Roby's Antiquities of Lancaster, 
as well as a description of Maulkins' Tower, the 
witches' place of meeting. It appears that this re- 
mote country was full of Popish recusants, travelling 
priests, and so forth ; and some of their spells are 
given, in which the holy names and things alluded to 
form a strange contrast with the purpose to which 
they were applied, as to secure a good brewing of 
ale or the like. The public imputed to the accused 
parties a long train of murders, conspiracies, charms, 
mischances, hellish and damnable practices, "ap- 



214 LETTERS ON 

parent," says the editor, " on their own examinations 
and confessions," and to speak the truth, visible no- 
where else. Mother Dembdike had the good luck to 
die before conviction. Among other tales, we have 
one of two female devils, called Fancy and Tib. It 
is remarkable that some of the unfortunate women 
endeavoured to transfer the guilt from themselves to 
others with whom they had old quarrels, which con- 
fessions were held good evidence against those who 
made them, and against the alleged accomplice also. 
Several of the unhappy women were found Not Guil- 
ty, to the great displeasure of the ignorant people 
of the county. Such was the first edition of the 
Lancashire witches. In that which follows, the ac- 
cusation can be more clearly traced to the most vil- 
lanous conspiracy. 

About 1634, a boy called Edmund Robinson, whose 
father, a very poor man, dwelt in Pendle Forest, the 
scene of the alleged witching, declared, that while 
gathering bullees (wild plums, perhaps), in one of the 
glades of the forest, he saw two greyhounds, which 
he imagined to belong to gentlemen in that neigh- 
bourhood. The boy reported that, seeing nobody 
following them, he proposed to have a course ; but 
though a hare was started, the dogs refused to run. 
On this, young Robinson was about to punish them 
with a switch, when one Dame Dickenson, a neigh- 
bour's wife, started up instead of the one greyhound ; 
a little boy instead of the other. The witness aver- 
red, that Mother Dickenson offered him money to 
conceal what he had seen, which he refused, saying 
" Nay, thou art a witch." Apparently, she was de- 
termined he should have full evidence of the truth of 
what he said, for, like the Magician Queen in the 
Arabian Tales, she pulled out of her pocket a bridle, 
and shook, it over the head of the boy who had so 
lately represented the other greyhound. He was di- 
rectly changed into a horse; Mother Dickenson 
mounted, and took Robinson before her. They then 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 215 

rode to a large house, or bam, called Hourstoun, into 
which Edmund Robinson entered with others. He 
there saw six or seven persons pulling at halters, 
from which, as they pulled them, meat ready dressed 
came flying in quantities, together with lumps of 
butter, porringers of milk, and whatever else might, 
in the boy's fancy, complete a rustic feast. He de- 
clared, that while engaged in the charm, they made 
such ugly faces, and looked so fiendish, that he was 
frightened. There was more to the same purpose — 
as the boy's having seen one of these hags sitting 
half way up his father's chimney, and some such 
goodly matter. But it ended in near a score of per- 
sons being committed to prison ; and the consequence 
was, that young Robinson was carried from church 
to church in the neighbourhood, that he might re- 
cognise the faces of any persons he had seen at the 
rendezvous of witches. Old Robinson, who had been 
an evidence against the former witches in 1613, went 
along with his son, and knew, doubtless, how to 
make his journey profitable ; and his son probably 
took care to recognise none who might make a hand- 
some consideration. "This boy," says Webster, 
" was brought into the Church of Kildwick, a parish 
Church, where I, being then curate there, was preach- 
ing at the time, to look about him, which made some 
little disturbance for the time." After prayers, Mr. 
Webster sought and found the boy, and two very un- 
likely persons, who, says he, " did conduct him and 
manage the business; I did desire some discourse 
with the boy in private, but that they utterly denied, 
In the presence of a great many people, I took the 
boy near me, and said, ' Good boy, tell me truly, and in 
earnest, didst thou hear and see such strange things 
of the motions of the witches, as many do report 
that thou didst relate, or did not some person teach 
thee to say such things of thyself]' But the two men 
did pluck the boy from me, and said he had been ex- 
amined by two able justices of peace, and they never 



216 LETTERS ON 

asked him such a question. To whom I replied, 
1 The persons accused had the more wrong.' " The 
boy afterward acknowledged, in his more advanced 
years, that he was instructed and suborned to swear 
these things against the accused persons, by his fa- 
ther and others, and was heard often to confess, that 
on the day which he pretended to see the said 
witches at the house, or barn, he was gathering plums 
in a neighbour's orchard.* 

There was now approaching a time, when the law 
against witchcraft, sufficiently bloody in itself, was 
to be pushed to more violent extremities than the 
quiet skepticism of the Church of England clergy 
gave way to. The great Civil War had been pre- 
ceded and anticipated by the fierce disputes of the ec- 
clesiastical parties. The rash and ill-judged attempt 
to enforce upon the Scottish a compliance with the 
government and ceremonies of the High Church di- 
vines, and the severe prosecutions in the Star Cham- 
ber and Prerogative Courts, had given the Presbyte- 
rian system for a season a great degree of popularity 
in England ; and as the king's party declined during 
the Civil War, and the state of church-government 
was altered, the influence of the Calvinistical divines 
increased. With much strict morality and pure prac- 
tice of religion, it is to be regretted these w 7 ere still 
marked by unhesitating belief in the existence of sor- 
cery, and a keen desire to extend and enforce the le- 
gal penalties against it. Wier has considered the 
clergy of every sect as being too eager in this spe- 
cies of persecution : Ad g ravem hanc impietatem, con- 
nivent theologi plerique omnes. But it is not to be 
denied that the Presbyterian ecclesiastics, who, in 
Scotland, were often appointed by the Privy Council 
commissioners for the trial of witchcraft, evinced a 
very extraordinary degree of credulity in such cases, 
and that the temporary superiority of the same sect 

* Wcbbteron Witchcraft, edition 1677, p. 278. 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 217 

in England was marked by enormous cruelties of 
this kind. To this general error we must impute the 
misfortune, that good men, such as Calamy and Bax- 
ter, should have countenanced or defended such pro- 
ceedings as those of the impudent and cruel wretch 
called Matthew Hopkins, who, in those unsettled 
times, when men did what seemed good in their own 
eyes, assumed the title of Witchfinder General, and 
travelling through the counties of Essex, Sussex, 
Norfolk, and Huntingdon, pretended to discover 
witches, superintending their examination by the 
most unheard-of tortures, and compelling forlorn and 
miserable wretches to admit and confess matters 
equally absurd and impossible; the issue of which was 
the forfeiture of their lives. Before examining these 
cases more minutely, I will quote Baxter's own 
words ; for no one can have less desire to wrong a 
devout and conscientious man, such as that divine 
most unquestionably was, though borne aside on this 
occasion by prejudice and credulity. 

" The hanging of a great number of witches in 
1645 and 1646 is famously known. Mr. Calamy 
went along with the judges on the circuit, to hear 
their confessions, and see there was no fraud or 
wrong done them. I spoke with many understand- 
ing, pious, learned, and credible persons, that lived 
in the counties, and some that went to them in the 
prisons, and heard their sad confessions. Among 
the rest, an old reading parson, named Lowis, not 
far from Framlingham, was one that was hanged, 
who confessed that he had, two imps, and that one 
of them was always putting him upon doing mis- 
chief; and he being near the sea, as he saw a ship 
under sail, it moved him to send it to sink the ship ; 
and he consented, and saw the ship sink before 
them." Mr. Baxter passes on to another story of a 
mother, who gave her child an imp like a mole, and 
told her to keep it in a can near the fire, and she 
T 



218 LETTERS ON 

would never want ; and more such stuff as nursery 
maids tell froward children to keep them quiet. 

It is remarkable that, in this passage, Baxter 
names the Witchfmder General rather slightly, as 
" one Hopkins," and without doing him the justice 
due to one who had discovered more than one hun- 
dred witches, and brought them to confessions which 
that good man received as indubitable. Perhaps 
the learned divine was one of those who believed 
that the Witchfmder General had cheated the Devil 
out of a certain memorandum-book, in which Satan, 
for the benefit of his memory certainly, had entered 
all the witches' names in England, and that Hopkins 
availed himself of this record.* 

It may be noticed, that times of misrule and vio- 
lence seem to create individuals fitted to take ad- 
vantage from them, and having a character suited to 
the seasons which raise them into notice and action ; 
just as a blight on any tree or vegetable calls to life 
a peculiar insect to feed upon and enjoy the decay 
which it has produced. A monster like Hopkins 
could only have existed during the confusion of 
civil dissension. He was, perhaps, a native of 
Manningtree, in Essex ; at any rate, he resided there 
in the year 1644, when an epidemic outcry of witch- 
craft arose in that town. Upon this occasion he 
had made himself busy, and affecting more zeal and 
knowledge than other men, learned his trade of a 
witchfmder, as he pretends, from experiment. He 
was afterward permitted to perform it as a legal 
profession, and moved from one place to another, 
with an assistant named Sterne, and a female. In 

* This reproach is noticed in a very rare tract, which was bought at 
Mr.Lort's sale, by the celebrated collector Mr. Bindley, and is now in 
the author's possession. Its full title is, "The Discovery of Witches, 
in Answer to several Queries lately delivered to the Judge of Assize for 
the County of Norfolk ; and now published by Matthew Hopkins, 
Witchfinder, for the Benefit of the whole Kingdom. Printed for R. 
Royston, at the Angel, in Inn Lane. 1647." 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 219 

his defence against an accusation of fleecing the 
country, he declares his regular charge was twenty- 
shillings a town, including charges of living, and 
journeying thither and back again with his as- 
sistants. He also affirms, that he went nowhere 
unless called and invited. His principal mode of 
discovery was, to strip the accused persons naked, 
and thrust pins into various parts of their body, to 
discover the witch's mark, which was supposed to 
be inflicted by the Devil, as a sign of his sovereignty, 
and at which she was also said to suckle her imps. 
He also practised and stoutly defended the trial by 
swimming, when the suspected person was wrapped 
in a sheet, having the great toes and thumbs tied 
together, and so dragged through a pond or river. 
If she sank, it was received in favour of the ac- 
cused ; but if the body floated (which must have oc- 
curred ten times for once, if it was placed with care 
on the surface of the water), the accused was con- 
demned, on the principle of King James, who, in 
treating of this mode of trial, lays down, that as 
witches have renounced their baptism, so it is just 
that the element through which the holy rite is en- 
forced, should reject them; which is a figure of 
speech, and no argument. It was Hopkins's custom 
to keep the poor wretches waking, in order to pre- 
vent them from having encouragement from the 
Devil, and, doubtless, to put infirm, terrified, over- 
watched persons in the next state to absolute mad- 
ness ; and, for the same purpose, they were dragged 
about by their keepers, till extreme weariness and 
the pain of blistered feet might form additional in- 
ducements to confession. Hopkins confesses these 
last practices of keeping the accused persons waking, 
and forcing them to walk, for the same purpose, had 
been originally used by him. But as his tract is a 
professed answer to charges of cruelty and oppres- 
sion, he affirms that both practices were then dis- 
used, and that they had not of late been resorted to. 



220 LETTERS ON 

The boast of the English nation is a manly inde- 
pendence and common sense, which will not long 
permit the license of tyranny or oppression on the 
meanest and most obscure sufferers. Many clergy- 
men and gentlemen made head against the practices 
of this cruel oppressor of the defenceless, and it re- 
quired courage to do so, when such an unscrupulous 
villain had so much interest. 

Mr. Gaul, a clergyman of Houghton in Hunting- 
donshire, had the courage to appear in print on the 
weaker side ; and Hopkins, in consequence, assumed 
the assurance to write to some functionaries of the 
place the following letter, which is an admirable 
medley of impudence, bullying, and cowardice : — 

" My service to your worship presented. — I have 
this day received a letter to come to a town called 
Great Houghton, to search for evil disposed persons 
called witches (though I hear your minister is far 
against us, through ignorance). I intend to come, 
God willing, the sooner to hear his singular judg- 
ment in the behalf of such parties. I have known 
a minister in Suffolk, as much against this discovery 
in a pulpit, and forced to recant it by the Com- 
mittee,* in the same place. I much marvel such 
evil men should have any (much more any of the 
clergy, who should daily speak terror to convince 
such offenders) stand up to take their parts against 
such as are complainants for the king, and sufferers 
themselves, with their families and estates. I in- 
tend to give your town a visit suddenly. I will 
come to Kimbolton this week, and it will be ten to 
one but I will come to your town first ; but I would 
certainly know before, whether your town affords 
many sticklers for such cattle, or is willing to give 
and allow us good welcome and entertainment, as 
others where I have been, else I shall waive your 
shire (not as yet beginning in any part of it myself)* 

* Of Parliament. 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 221 

and betake me to such places where I do and may 
punish (not only) without control, but with thanks 
and recompense. So I humbly take my leave, and 
rest your servant to be commanded, 

" Matthew Hopkins." 

The sensible and courageous Mr. Gaul describes 
the tortures employed by this fellow as equal to any 
practised in the Inquisition. "Having taken the 
suspected witch, she is placed in the middle of a 
room, upon a stool or table, cross-legged, or in some 
other uneasy posture, to which, if she submits not, 
she is then bound with cords ; there she is watched, 
and kept without meat or sleep for four-and-twenty 
hours, for they say, they shall within that time see 
her imp come and suck. A little hole is likewise 
made in the door for the imps to come in at ; and 
lest they should come in some less discernible shape, 
they that watch are taught to be ever and anon 
sweeping the room ; and if they see any spiders or 
flies to kill them, and if they cannot kill them, they 
may be sure they are their imps." 

If torture of this kind was applied to the Reverend 
Mr. Lewis, whose death is too slightly announced 
by Mr. Baxter, we can conceive him, or any man, 
to have indeed become so weary of his life as to ac- 
knowledge, that by means of his imps, he sunk a 
vessel, without any purpose of gratification to be 
procured to himself by such iniquity. But in ano- 
ther cause, a judge would have demanded some 
proof of the corpus delicti, some evidence of a vessel 
being lost at the period, whence coming and whither 
bound; in short, something to establish that the 
whole story was not the idle imagination of a man 
who might have been entirely deranged, and certainly 
was so at the time he made the admission. John Lewis 
was presented to the Vicarage of Brandiston, near 
Framlington in Suffolk, 6th of May, 1596, where he 
lived about fifty years, till executed as a wizard, on 
T2 



222 LETTERS ON 

such evidence as we have seen. Notwithstanding 
the story of his alleged confession, he defended him- 
self courageously at his trial, and was probably con- 
demned rather as a royalist and malignant, than for 
any other cause. He showed at the execution con- 
siderable energy, and to secure that the funeral ser- 
vice of the church should be said over his body, he 
read it aloud for himself while on the road to the 
gibbet. 

We have seen that, in 1647, Hopkins' tone became 
lowered, and he began to disavow some of the cruel- 
ties he had formerly practised. About the same 
time, a miserable old woman had fallen into the 
cruel hands of this miscreant near Hoxne, a village 
in Suffolk, and had confessed all the usual enormities, 
after being without food or rest a sufficient time. 
Her imp, she said, was called Nan. A gentleman 
in the neighbourhood, whose widow survived to au- 
thenticate the story, was so indignant, that he went 
to the house, took the woman out of such inhuman 
hands, dismissed the witchfinders, and after due food 
and rest, the poor old woman could recollect nothing 
of the confession, but that she gave a favourite pullet 
the name of Nan. For this Dr. Hutchison may be 
referred to, who quotes a letter from the relict of the 
humane gentleman. 

In the year 1645, a commission of Parliament was 
sent down, comprehending two clergymen in esteem 
with the leading party, one of whom, Mr. Fairclough 
of Keller, preached before the rest on the subject of 
witchcraft ; and after this appearance of inquiry, the 
inquisitions and executions went on as before. But 
the popular indignation was so strongly excited 
against Hopkins, that some gentlemen seized on him, 
and put him to his own favourite experiment of swim- 
ming, on which, as he happened to float, he stood 
convicted of witchcraft, and so the country was rid 
of him. Whether he was drowned outright or not, 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 223 

does not exactly appear, but he has had the honour 
to be commemorated by the author of Hudibras : — 

" HatrTnot this present parliament 
A leiger to the Devil sent, 
Fully empowered to treat about 
Finding revolted witches out 1 
And has he not within a year 
Hang'd threescore of them in one shire 1 
Some only for not being drown'd 
And some for sitting above ground 
Whole days and nights upon their breeches, 
And feeling pain, were hang'd for witches. 
And some for putting knavish tricks 
Upon green geese or turkey chicks ; 
Or pigs that suddenly deceased 
Of griefs unnatural, as he guess'd, 
Who proved himself at length a witch, 
And made a rod for his own breech/'* 

The understanding reader will easily conceive, 
that this alteration of the current in favour of those 
who disapproved of witch-prosecutions, must have 
received encouragement from some quarter of weight 
and influence ; yet it may sound strangely enough, 
that this spirit of lenity should have been the result 
of the peculiar principles of those sectarians of all 
denominations, classed in general as Independents, 
who, though they had originally courted the Presby- 
terians as the more numerous and prevailing party, 
had at length shaken themselves loose of that con- 
nexion, and finally combated with and overcome 
them. The Independents were distinguished'by the 
wildest license in their religious tenets, mixed with 
much that was nonsensical and mystical. They dis- 
owned even the title of a regular clergy, and allowed 
the preaching of any one who could draw together 
a congregation that would support him, or who 
was willing, without recompense, to minister to the 
spiritual necessities of his hearers. Although such 
laxity of discipline afforded scope to the wildest 
enthusiasm, and room for all possible varieties of 

* Hudibras, part ii. canto 3. 



224 LETTERS ON 

doctrine, it had on the other hand, this inestimable 
recommendation, that it contributed to a degree of 
general toleration which was at that time unknown 
to any other Christian establishment. The very 
genius of a religion which admitted of the subdivision 
of sects ad infinitum, excluded a legal prosecution of 
any one of these for heresy or apostacy. If there had 
even existed a sect of Manicheans, who made it their 
practice to adore the Evil Principle, it may be 
doubted whether the other sectaries would have 
accounted them absolute outcasts from the pale of 
the church; and, fortunately, the same sentiment 
induced them to regard with honor the prosecutions 
against witchcraft. Thus the Independents, when 
under Cromwell they attained a supremacy over the 
Presbyterians, who to a certain point had been their 
allies, were disposed to counteract the violence of 
such proceedings under pretence of witchcraft, as had 
been driven forward by the wretched Hopkins, in 
Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk, for three or four years 
previous to 1647. 

The return of Charles II. to his crown and king- 
dom, served in some measure to restrain the general 
and wholesale manner in which the laws against 
witchcraft had been administered during the warmth 
of the civil war. The statute of the 1st of King 
James, nevertheless, yet subsisted ; nor is it in the 
least likely, considering the character of the prince, 
that he, to save the lives of a few old men and women, 
would have run the risk of incurring the odium of 
encouraging or sparing a crime still held in horror 
by a great part of his subjects. The statute, how- 
ever, was generally administered by wise and skilful 
judges, and the accused had such a chance of escape 
as the rigour of the absurd law pennitted. 

Nonsense, it is too obvious, remained in some cases 
predominant. In the year 1663, an old dame named 
Julian Coxe, was convicted chiefly on the evidence 
of a huntsman, who declared on his oath, that he 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 225 

laid his greyhounds on a hare, and, coming up to the 
spot where he saw them mouth her, there he found, 
on the other side of a hush, Julian Coxe lying pant- 
ing and breathless, in such a manner as to convince 
him that she had been the creature which afforded 
him the course. The unhappy woman was executed 
on this evidence. 

Two years afterward (1664), it is with regret we 
must quote the venerable and devout Sir Matthew 
Hale, as presiding at a trial, in consequence of which 
Amy Dunny and Rose Callender were hanged at Saint 
Edmondsbury. But no man, unless very peculiarly 
circumstanced, can extricate himself from the preju- 
dices of his nation and age. The evidence against 
the accused was laid, 1st, on the effect of spells used 
by ignorant persons to counteract the supposed witch- 
craft ; the use of which was, under the statute of 
James I., as criminal as the act of sorcery which 
such comiter-charms were meant to neutralize. 2dly, 
The two old women, refused even the privilege of 
purchasing some herrings, having expressed them- 
selves with angry impatience, a child of the herring- 
merchant fell ill in consequence. 3dly, A cart was 
driven against the miserable cottage of Amy Dunny, 
She scolded, of course ; and shortly after the cart — 
(what a good driver will scarcely comprehend) — 
stuck fast in a gate where its wheels touched neither 
of the posts, and yet was moved easily forward on 
one of the posts (by which it was not impeded) being 
cut down. 4thly, One of the afflicted girls, being 
closely muffled, went suddenly into a fit upon being 
touched by one of the supposed witches. But, upon 
another trial, it was found that the person so blind- 
folded fell into the same rage at the touch of an unsus- 
pected person. What perhaps sealed the fate of the 
accused, was the evidence of the celebrated Sir 
Thomas Browne, " that the fits were natural, but 
heightened by the power of the Devil co-operating 
the malice of witches ;" — a strange opinion, 



226 LETTERS ON 

certainly, from the author of a treatise on Vulgar 
Errors ! # 

But the torch of science was now fairly lighted, 
and gleamed in more than one kingdom of the world, 
shooting its rays on every side, and catching at all 
means which were calculated to increase the illumi- 
nation. The Royal Society, which had taken its 
rise at Oxford, from a private association, who met 
in Dr. Wilkin's chambers about the year 1652, was, 
the year after the Restoration, incorporated by royal 
charter, and began to publish their Transactions, and 
give a new and more rational character to the pur- 
suits of philosophy. 

In France, where the mere will of the government 
could accomplish greater changes, the consequence 
of an enlarged spiri • of scientific discovery was, that 
a decisive stop was put to the witch-prosecutions, 
which had heretofore been as common in that king- 
dom as in England. About the year 1672, there was 
a general arrest of very many shepherds, and others, 
in Normandy, and the Parliament of Rouen prepared 
to proceed in the investigation with the usual severity. 
But an order, or arret, from the king (Louis XIV.), 
with advice of his council, commanding all these 
unfortunate persons to be set at liberty and protected, 
had the most salutary effects all over the kingdom. 
The French Academy of Sciences was also founded ; 
and, in imitation, a society of learned Germans 
established a similar institution at Leipsic. Preju- 
dices, however old, were overawed and controlled — 
much was accounted for on natural principles that 
had hitherto been imputed to spiritual agency — every 
thing seemed to promise, that farther access to the 
secrets of nature might be opened to those who 
should prosecute their studies experimentally and by 
analysis — and the mass of ancient opinions which 
overwhelmed the dark subject of which we treat, 

* See the account of Sir T. Browne, in " Lives of British Physi- 
cians," p. 60. 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 227 

began to be derided and rejected by men of sense and 
education. 

In many cases the prey was now snatched from 
the spoiler. A pragmatical justice of peace in 
Somersetshire, commenced a course of inquiry after 
offenders against the statute of James I., and had he 
been allowed to proceed, Mr. Hunt might have gained 
a name as renowned for witch-finding as that of Mr. 
Hopkins ; but his researches were stopped from higher 
authority — the lives of the poor people arrested 
(twelve in number) were saved, and the country re- 
mained at quiet, though the supposed witches were 
suffered to live. The examinations attest some 
curious particulars which may be found in Sadducis- 
mus Triumphatus : for, among the usual string of 
froward, fanciful, or, as they were called, afflicted 
children, brought forward to club their startings, 
starings, and screamings, there appeared also certain 
remarkable confessions of the accused, from which 
we learn that the Somerset Satan enlisted his witches, 
like a wily recruiting sergeant, with one shilling in 
hand, and twelve in promises ; that when the party 
of weird-sisters passed to the witch-meeting, they 
used the magic words, Thout, tout, throughout, and 
about; and that when they departed, they exclaimed, 
Rentum, Tormentum ! We are farther informed, that 
his Infernal Highness, on his departure, leaves a 
smell, and that (in nursery-maid's phrase) not a pretty 
one, behind him. Concerning this fact we have a 
curious exposition by Mr. Glanville : " This," accord- 
ing to that respectable authority, " seems to imply the 
reality of the business, those ascititious particles which 
he held together in his sensible shape being loosened 
at his vanishing, and so offending the nostrils by their 
floating and diffusing themselves in the open air."* 
How much we are bound to regret, that Mr. Justice 
Hunt's discovery " of this hellish kind of witches," 

* Glanville's Collection of Relations, 



228 LETTERS ON 

in itself so clear and plain, and containing such valu- 
able information, should have been smothered by 
meeting with opposition and discouragement from 
some then in authority ! 

Lord-Keeper Guildford was also a stifler of the 
proceedings against witches. Indeed, we may gene- 
rally remark, during the latter part of the seventeenth 
century, that where the judges were men of educa- 
tion and courage* sharing in the information of the 
times, they were careful to check the precipitate ig- 
norance and prejudice of the juries, by giving them 
a more precise idea of the indifferent value of con- 
fessions by the accused themselves, and of testimony 
derived from the pretended visions of those supposed 
to be bewitched. Where, on the contrary, judges 
shared with the vulgar in their ideas of such fasci- 
nation, or were contented to leave the evidence with 
the jury, fearful to withstand the general cry too 
common on such occasions, a verdict of guilty often 
followed. 

We are informed by Roger North, that a case of 
this kind happened at the assizes in Exeter, where 
his brother, the Lord Chief-Justice, did not interfere 
with the crown trials, and the other judge left for 
execution a poor old woman, condemned, as usual, 
on her own confession, and on the testimony of 
a neighbour, who deponed that he saw a cat jump 
into the accused person's cottage window at twilight, 
one evening, and that he verily believed the said cat 
to be the Devil ; on which precious testimony the 
poor wretch was accordingly hanged. On another 
occasion, about the same time, the passions of the 
great and little vulgar were so much excited by the 
acquittal of an aged village dame whom the judge 
had taken some pains to rescue, that Sir John Long, 
a man of rank and fortune, came to the judge in the 
greatest perplexity, requesting that the hag might 
not be permitted to return to her miserable cottage 
on his estates, since all his tenants had, in that case, 



DEMONOLOGY A^D WITCHCRAFT. 229 

threatened to leave him. In compassion to a gen- 
tleman who apprehended ruin from a cause so whim- 
sical, the dangerous old woman was appointed to be 
kept by the town where she was acquitted, at the 
rate of half a crown a-week paid by the parish to 
which she belonged. But, behold! in the period 
between the two assizes, Sir John Long and his 
farmers had mustered courage enough to petition 
that this witch should be sent back to them in all 
her terrors, because they could support her among 
them at a shilling a-week cheaper than they were 
obliged to pay to the town for her maintenance. In 
a subsequent trial before Lord Chief-Justice North 
himself, that judge detected one of those practices 
which, it is to be feared, were too common at the 
tune, when witnesses found their advantage in feign- 
ing themselves bewitched. A woman, supposed to 
be the victim of the male sorcerer at the bar, vomited 
pins in quantities, and those straight, differing from 
the crooked pins usually produced at such times, 
and less easily concealed in the mouth. The judge, 
however, discovered, by cross-examining a candid 
witness, that in counterfeiting her fits of convulsion, 
the woman sunk her head on her breast, so as to 
take up with her lips the pins which she had placed 
ready in her stomacher. The man was acquitted, of 
course. A frightful old hag who was present, distin- 
guished herself so much by her benedictions on the 
judge, that he asked the cause of the peculiar inte- 
rest which she took in the acquittal. " Twenty years 
ago," said the poor woman, " they would have hanged 
me for a witch, but could not ; and now, but for your 
lordship, they would have murdered my innocent 
son."* 

Such scenes happened frequently on the assizes, 
while country gentlemen, like the excellent Sir Roger 
de* Coverley, retained a private share in the terror with 

* Roger North's Life of Lord-Keeper Guilford. 

u 



230 LETTERS OS 

which their tenants, servants, and retainers re- 
garded some old Moll White, who put the hounds 
at fault, and ravaged the fields with hail and hum- 
canes. Sir John Reresby, after an account of a poor 
woman tried for a witch at York, in 1686, and ac- 
quitted, as he thought, very properly, proceeds to tell 
us, that, notwithstanding, the sentinel upon the jail 
where she was confined, avowed, " that he saw a 
scroll of paper creep from under the prison-door, and 
then change itself first into a monkey, and then into 
a turkey, which the under-keeper confirmed. This," 
says Sir John, " I have heard from the mouth of both, 
and now leave it to be believed, or disbelieved, as 
the reader may be inclined."* We may see that 
Reresby, a statesman and a soldier, had not as yet 
" plucked the old woman out of his heart." Even 
Addison himself ventured no farther in his incre- 
dulity respecting this crime, than to contend, that 
although witchcraft might and did exist, there was 
no such thing as a modern instance competently 
proved. 

As late as 1682, three unhappy women, named 
Susan Edwards, Mary Trembles, and Temperance 
Lloyd, were hanged at Exeter for witchcraft, and, as 
usual, on their own confession. This is believed to 
be the last execution of the kind in England, under 
form of judicial sentence. But the ancient supersti- 
tion, so interesting to vulgar credulity, like sediment 
clearing itself from water, sunk down in a deeper 
shade upon the ignorant and lowest class of society, 
in proportion as the higher regions were purified from 
its influence. The populace, including the ignorant 
of every class, were more enraged against witches, 
when their passions were once excited, in proportion 
to the lenity exercised towards the objects of their 
indignation by those who administered the laws. 
Several cases occurred in which the mob, impressed 

* Memoirs of Sir John Reresby, p. 237 



DEMOKOLOGY AND W^GHCRAFT. 231 

Vrith a conviction of the guilt of some destitute old 
creatures, took the law into their own hands, and, 
proceeding upon such evidence as Hopkins would 
have had recourse to, at once, in their own apprehen- 
sion, ascertained their criminality, and administered 
the deserved punishment. 

The following instance of such illegal and inhu- 
man proceedings occurred at Oakly, near Bedford, 
on the 12th July, 1707. There was one woman, up- 
wards of 60 years of age, who, being under an impu- 
tation of witchcraft, was desirous to escape from so 
foul a suspicion, and to conciliate the good-will of 
her neighbours, by allowing them to duck her. The 
parish officers so far consented to their humane expe- 
riment as to promise the poor woman a guinea if she 
should clear herself by sinking. The unfortunate 
object was tied up in a wet sheet, her thumbs and 
great toes were bound together, her cap torn off, and 
all her apparel searched for pins ; for there is an idea 
that a single pin spoils the operation of the charm. 
She was then dragged through the river Ouse by a 
rope tied round her middle. Unhappily for the poor 
woman, her body floated, though her head remained 
under water. The experiment was made three times 
with the same effect. The cry to hang or drown the 
witch then became general ; and as she lay half dead 
on the bank, they loaded the wretch with reproaches, 
and hardly forbore blows. A single humane by- 
stander took her part, and exposed himself to rough 
usage for doing so. Luckily, one of the mob them- 
selves at length suggested the additional experiment 
of weighing the witch against the Church Bible. 
The friend of humanity caught at this means of es- 
cape, supporting the proposal by the staggering argu- 
ment, that the Scripture, being the work of God him- 
self, must outweigh necessarily all the operations or 
vassals of the Devil. The reasoning was received 
as conclusive, the more readily as it promised a new 
species of amusement. The woman was then 



232 LETTERS ON 

weighed against a Church Bible of twelve pounds 
jockey weight, and as she was considerably prepon- 
derant, was dismissed with honour. But many of the 
mob counted her acquittal irregular, and would have 
had the poor dame drowned or hanged on the re- 
sult of her ducking, as the more authentic species 
of trial. 

At length, a similar piece of inhumanity, which 
had a very different conclusion, led to the final aboli- 
tion of the statute of James I., as affording counte- 
nance for such brutal proceedings. An aged pauper, 
named Osborne, and his wife, who resided near 
Tring, in Staffordshire, fell under the suspicion of 
the mob on account of supposed witchcraft. The 
overseers of the poor, understanding that the rabble 
entertained a purpose of swimming these infirm 
creatures, which indeed they had expressed in a sort 
of proclamation, endeavoured to oppose their purpose 
by securing the unhappy couple in the vestry-room, 
which they barricaded. They were unable, however, 
to protect them in the manner they intended. The 
mob forced the door, seized the accused, and with 
ineffable brutality continued dragging the wretches 
through a pool of water till the woman lost her life. 
A brute in human form, who had superintended the 
murder, went among the spectators, and requested 
money for the sport he had shown them ! The life 
of the other victim was with great difficulty saved. 
Three men were tried for their share in this inhuman 
action. Only one of them, named Colley, was con- 
demned and hanged. When he came to execu- 
tion, the rabble, instead of crowding round the gal- 
lows as usual, stood at a distance, and abused those 
who were putting to death, they said, an honest fel- 
low for ridding the parish of an accursed witch. 
This abominable murder was committed 30th July, 
1751. 

The repetition of such horrors, the proneness of 
the people to so cruel and heart-searing a supersti- 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 233 

tion, was traced by the legislature to its source, 
namely, the yet unabolished statute of James T. Ac- 
cordingly, by the 9th George II. cap. 5, that odious 
law, so long the object of horror to all ancient and 
poverty-stricken females in the kingdom, was abro- 
gated, and all criminal procedure on the subject of 
sorcery or witchcraft discharged in future throughout 
Great Britain; reserving for such as should pretend 
to the skill of fortune-tellers, discoverers of stolen 
goods, or the like, the punishment of the correction 
house, as due to rogues and vagabonds. Since that 
period, witchcraft has been little heard of in Eng- 
land, and although the belief in its existence has, in 
remote places, survived the law that recognised the 
evidence of the crime, and assigned its punishment 
— yet such faith is gradually becoming forgotten 
since the rabble have been deprived of all pretext to 
awaken it by their own riotous proceedings. Some 
rare instances have occurred of attempts similar to 
that for which Colley suffered : and I observe one is 
preserved in that curious register of knowledge, Mr. 
Hone's Popular Amusements, from which it ap- 
pears, that as late as the end of last century this bru- 
tality was practised, though happily without loss of 
life. 

The Irish statute against witchcraft still exists, as 
it would seem. Nothing occurred in that kingdom 
which recommended its being formally annulled; 
but it is considered as obsolete, and should so wild 
a thing be attempted in the present day, no proce- 
dure, it is certain, would now be permitted to lie 
upon it. 

If any thing were wanted to confirm the general 
proposition, that the epidemic terror of witchcraft 
increases and becomes general in proportion to the 
increase of prosecutions against witches, it would be 
sufficient to quote certain extraordinary occurrences 
in New-England. Only a brief account can be here 
given of the dreadful hallucination under which the 
U2 



234 LETTERS ON 

colonists of that province were for a time deluded 
and oppressed by a strange contagious terror, and 
how suddenly and singularly it was cured, even by 
its own excess ; but it is too strong evidence of the 
imaginary character of this hideous disorder, to be 
altogether suppressed. 

New-England, as is well known, was peopled 
mainly by emigrants who had been disgusted with 
the government of Charles I. in church and state, 
previous to the great Civil War. Many of the more 
wealthy settlers were Presbyterians and Calvinists ; 
others, fewer in number, and less influential from 
their fortune, were Quakers, Anabaptists, or mem- 
bers of the other sects, who were included under 
the general name of Independents. The Calvin- 
ists brought with them the same zeal for religion 
and strict morality which every where distinguished 
them. Unfortunately, they were not wise according 
to their zeal, but entertained a proneness to believe 
in supernatural and direct personal intercourse be- 
tween the Devil and his vassals — an error to which, as 
we have endeavoured to show, their brethren in Eu- 
rope had, from the beginning, been peculiarly sub- 
ject. In a country imperfectly cultivated, and where 
the partially improved spots were imbosomed in in- 
accessible forests, inhabited by numerous tribes of 
savages, it was natural that a disposition to supersti- 
tion should rather gain than lose ground, and that to 
other dangers and horrors with which they were sur- 
rounded, the colonists should have added fears of 
the Devil, not merely as the Evil Principle tempting 
human nature to sin, and thus endangering our sal- 
vation, but as combined with sorcerers and witches 
to inflict death and torture upon children and others. 

The first case which I observe, was that of four 
children of a person called John Goodwin, a mason. 
The eldest, a girl, had quarrelled with the laundress 
of the family about some linen which was missing. 
The mother of the laundress, an ignorant, testy, and 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 235 

choleric old Irishwoman, scolded the accuser ; and 
shortly aft jr, the elder Goodwin, her sister, and two 
brothers were seized with such strange diseases, that 
all their neighbours concluded they were bewitched. 
They conducted themselves as those supposed to 
suffer under maladies created by such influence were 
accustomed to do. They stiffened their necks sa 
hard at one time that the joints could not be moved; 
at another time their necks were so flexible and 
supple, that it seemed the bone was dissolved. They 
had violent convulsions, in which their jaws snapped 
with the force of a spring-trap set for vermin. Their 
limbs were curiously contorted, and to those who 
had a taste for the marvellous, seemed entirely dis- 
located and displaced. Amid these distortions, they 
cried out against the poor old woman, whose name 
was Glover, alleging that she was in presence with 
them, adding to their torments. The miserable Irish- 
woman, who hardly could speak the English lan- 
guage, repeated her Pater Noster and Ave Maria 
like a good Catholic; but there were some words 
which she had forgotten. She was therefore sup- 
posed to be unable to pronounce the whole consis- 
tently and correctly — and condemned and executed 
accordingly. 

But the children of Goodwin found the trade they 
were engaged in to be too profitable to be laid aside, 
and the eldest, in particular, continued all the external 
signs of witchcraft and possession. Some of these 
were excellently calculated to flatter the self-opinion 
and prejudices of the Calvinist ministers, by whom 
she was attended, and accordingly bear in their very 
front the character of studied and voluntary impos- 
ture. The young woman, acting, as was supposed, 
under the influence of the Devil, read a Quaker trea- 
tise with ease and apparent satisfaction ; — but a book 
written against the poor inoffensive Friends, the 
Devil would not allow his victim to touch. She 



236 LETTERS ON 

could look on a Church of England Prayer-book, and 
read the portions of Scripture which it contains, 
without difficulty or impediment; — but the spirit 
which possessed her threw her into fits if she at- 
tempted to read the same Scriptures from the Bible, 
as if the awe which it is supposed the fiends enter- 
tain for Holy Writ, depended, not on the meaning of 
the words, but the arrangement of the page, and the 
type in which they were printed. This singular 
species of flattery was designed to captivate the cler- 
gyman through his professional opinions ; — others 
were more strictly personal. The afflicted damsel 
seems to have been somewhat of the humour of the 
Inamorato of Messrs. Smack, Pluck, Catch, and 
Company, and had, like her, merry as well as melan- 
choly fits. She often imagined that her attendant 
spirits brought her a handsome pony to ride off with 
them to their rendezvous. On such occasions she 
made a spring upwards, as if to mount her horse, 
and then, still seated on her chair, mimicked with 
dexterity and agility the motions of the animal 
pacing, trotting, and galloping, like a child on the 
nurse's knee ; but when she cantered in this manner 
up stairs, she affected inability to enter the clergy- 
man's study, and when she was pulled into it by 
force, used to become quite well, and stand up as 
a rational being. "Reasons were given for this," 
says the simple minister, " that seem more kind than 
true." Shortly after this, she appears to have treated 
the poor divine with a species of sweetness and 
attention, which gave him greater embairassment 
than her former violence. She used to break in upon 
him at his studies to importune him to come down 
stairs, and thus advantaged doubtless the kingdom 
of Satan by the interruption of his pursuits. At 
length, the Goodwins were, or appeared to be, cured. 
But the example had been given and caught, and the 
blood of poor Dame Glover, which had been the 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 237 

introduction to this tale of a hobby-horse, was to be 
the forerunner of new atrocities, and fearfully more 
general follies. 

This scene opened by the illness of two girls, a 
daughter and niece of Mr. Parvis, the minister of 
Salem, who fell under an affliction similar to that of 
the Goodwins. Their mouths were stopped, their 
throats choked, their limbs racked, thorns were 
stuck into their flesh, and pins were ejected from 
their stomachs. An Indian and his wife, servants 
of the family, endeavouring, by some spell of their 
own, to discover by whom the fatal charm had been 
imposed on their master's children, drew themselves 
under suspicion, and were hanged. The judges and 
juries persevered, encouraged by the discovery of 
these poor Indians' guilt, and hoping they might 
thus expel from the colony the authors of such prac- 
tices. They acted, says Mather, the historian, under 
a conscientious wish to do justly ; but the cases of 
witchcraft and possession increased as if they were 
transmitted by contagion, and the same sort of spec- 
tral evidence being received which had occasioned 
the condemnation of the Indian woman Titu, became 
generally fatal. The afflicted persons failed not to 
see the spectres, as they were termed, of the persons 
by whom they were tormented. Against this species 
of evidence no alibi could be offered, because it was 
admitted, as we have said elsewhere, that the real 
persons of the accused were not there present ; and 
every thing rested upon the assumption that the 
afflicted persons were telling the truth, since their 
evidence could not be redargued. These spectres 
were generally represented as offering their victims 
a book, on signing which they would be freed from 
their torments. Sometimes the Devil appeared in 
person, and added his own eloquence to move the 
afflicted persons to consent. 

At first, as seems natural enough, the poor and 
miserable alone were involved ; but presently, when 



238 LETTERS ON 

such evidence was admitted as incontrovertible, the 
afflicted began to see the spectral appearances of 
persons of higher condition, and of irreproachable 
lives, some of whom were arrested, some made their 
escape, while several were executed. The more 
that suffered, the greater became the number of 
afflicted persons, and the wider and the more nu- 
merous were the denunciations against supposed 
witches. The accused were of all ages. A child 
of five years old was indicted by some of the af- 
flicted, who imagined they saw this juvenile wizard 
active in tormenting them, and appealed to the mark 
of little teeth on their bodies, where they stated it 
had bitten them. A poor dog was also hanged, as 
having been alleged to be busy in this infernal per- 
secution. These gross insults on common reason 
occasioned a revulsion in public feeling, but not till 
many lives had been sacrificed. By this means 
nineteen men and women were executed, besides a 
stout-hearted man, named Cory, who refused to plead, 
and was accordingly pressed to death, according to 
the old law. On this horrible occasion, a circumstance 
took place disgusting to humanity, which must yet be 
told, to show how superstition can steel the heart of a 
man against the misery of his fellow-creature. The 
dying man, in the mortal agony, thrust out his tongue, 
which the Sheriff crammed with his cane back again 
into his mouth. Eight persons were condemned, 
besides those who had actually suffered ; and no less 
than two hundred were in prison and under exami- 
nation. 

Men began then ff\ ask, whether the Devil might 
not artfully deceive >ne afflicted into the accusation 
of good and innocent persons, by presenting witches 
and fiends in the resemblance of blameless persons, 
as engaged in the tormenting of their diseased coun- 
tryfolk. This argument was by no means incon- 
sistent with the belief in witchcraft, and was the 
more readily listened to on that account. Besides, 



DEMONOtOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 239 

men found that no rank or condition could save 
them from the danger of this horrible accusation, if 
they continued to encourage ' the witnesses in such 
an unlimited course as had hitherto been granted to 
them. Influenced by these reflections, the settlers 
awoke as from a dream, and the voice of the public, 
which had so lately demanded vengeance on all who 
were suspected of sorcery, began now, on the other 
hand, to lament the effusion of blood, under the 
strong suspicion that part of it at least had been in- 
nocently and unjustly sacrificed. In Mather's own 
language, which we use as that of a man deeply 
convinced of the reality of the crime, " experience 
showed that the more were apprehended, the more 
were still afflicted by Satan, and the number of con- 
fessions increasing, did but increase the number of 
the accused, and the execution of some made way 
to the apprehension of others. For still the afflicted 
complained of being tormented by new objects, as 
the former were removed, so that some of those that 
were concerned grew amazed at the number and 
condition of those that were accused, and feared 
that Satan, by his wiles, had enwrapped innocent 
persons under the imputation of that crime ; and at 
last, as was evidently seen, there must be a stop 
put, or the generation of the kingdom of God would 
fall under condemnation."* 

The prosecutions were, therefore, suddenly 
stopped, the prisoners dismissed, the condemned par- 
doned, and even those who had confessed, the num- 
ber of whom was very extraordinary, were pardoned 
among others ; and the author ve have just quoted 
thus records the result: — "Y» jn this prosecution 

* Mather's Magnalia, book vi. chap, lxxxii. The zealous author, 
however, regrets the general jail -delivery on the score of sorcery, and 
thinks, had the times been calm, the case might have required a farther 
investigation, and tbat, on the whole, the matter was ended too abruptly. 
But, the temper of the times considered, he admits candidly, that it is 
better to act moderately in matters capital, and to let the guilty escape, 
than run the risk of destroying the innocent. 



240 LETTERS ON 

ceased, the Lord so chained up Satan, that the af- 
flicted grew presently well. The accused were 
generally quiet, and for five years there was no such 
molestation among us." 

To this it must be added, that the congregation 
of Salem compelled Mr. Parvis, in whose family the 
disturbance had begun, and who, they alleged, was 
the person by whom it was most fiercely driven 
on in the commencement, to leave his settlement 
among them. Such of the accused as had confessed 
the acts of witchcraft imputed to them, generally 
denied and retracted their confessions, asserting 
them to have been made under fear of torture, in- 
fluence of persuasion, or other circumstances exclu- 
sive of their free will. Several of the judges and 
jurors concerned in the sentence of those who were 
executed, published their penitence for their rash- 
ness in convicting these unfortunate persons; and 
one of the judges, a man of the most importance in 
the colony, observed, during the rest of his life, the 
anniversary of the first execution as a day of solemn 
fast and humiliation for his own share in the trans- 
action. Even the barbarous Indians were struck 
with wonder at the infatuation of the English colo- 
nists on this occasion, and drew disadvantageous 
comparisons between them and the French, among 
whom, as they remarked, "the Great Spirit sends 
no witches." 

The system of witchcraft, as believed in Scotland, 
must next claim our attention, as it is different in 
some respects from that of England, and subsisted 
to a later period, and was prosecuted with much 
more severity. 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 241 



LETTER IX. 

Scottish Trials— Earl of Mar— Lady Glammis— William Barton— 
Witches of Auldearne — Their Rites and Charms — Their Transforma- 
tion into Hares— Satan's Severity towards them— Their Crimes— Sir 
George Mackenzie's Opinion of Witchcraft — Instances of Confessions 
made by the Accused, in Despair, and to avoid future Annoyance and 
Persecution — Examination by Pricking — The Mode of judicial Proce- 
dure against Witches, and Nature of the Evidence admissible, opened 
a Door to Accusers, and left the Accused no Chance of Escape — The 
Superstition of the Scottish Clergy in King James VI.'s Time led 
them, like their Sovereign, to encourage Witch-Prosecutions — Case 
of Bessie Graham — Supposed Conspiracy to Shipwreck James in his 
Voyage to Denmark — Meetings of the Witches, and Rites performed 
to accomplish their Purpose — Trial of Margaret Barclay in 1618 — Case 
of Major Weir— Sir John Clerk among the first who declined acting 
as Commissioner on the Trial of a Witch — Paisley and Pittenweem 
Witches — A Prosecution in Caithness prevented by the Interference 
of the King's Advoeate in 1718 — The last Sentence of Death for 
Witchcraft pronounced in Scotland in 1722— Remains of the Witch 
Superstition— Case of supposed Witchcraft, related from the Author's 
own Knowledge, which took place so late as 1800. 

For many years the Scottish nation had been re- 
markable for a credulous belief in witchcraft, and 
repeated examples were supplied by the annals of 
sanguinary executions on this sad accusation. Our 
acquaintance with the slender foundation on which 
Boetius and Buchanan reared the early part of their 
histories, may greatly incline us to doubt whether a 
king named Duffus ever reigned in Scotland, and 
still more whether he died by the agency of a gang 
of witches, who inflicted torments upon an image 
made in his name, for the sake of compassing his 
death. In the tale of Macbeth, which is another 
early instance of Demonology in Scottish history, 
the weird-sisters, who were the original prophet- 
esses, appeared to the usurper in a dream, and are 
described as voice, or sibyls, rather than as witches, 
though Shakspeare has stamped the latter character 
indelibly upon them. 

X 



242 LETTERS ON 

One of the earliest real cases of importance 
founded upon witchcraft, was, like those of the 
Duchess of Gloucester, and others in the sister 
country, mingled with an accusation of a political 
nature, which, rather than the sorcery, brought the 
culprits to their fate. The Earl of Mar, brother of 
James III. of Scotland, fell under the king's suspi- 
cion, for consulting with witches and sorcerers how 
to shorten the king's days. On such a charge, very 
inexplicitly stated, the unhappy Mar was bled to 
death in his own lodgings, without either trial or 
conviction ; immediately after which catastrophe, 
twelve women of obscure rank, and three or four 
wizards, or warlocks as they w r ere termed, were 
burned at Edinburgh, to give a colour to the Earl's 
guilt. 

In the year 1537, a noble matron fell a victim to a 
similar charge. This was Janet Douglas, Lady 
Glammis, who, with her son, her second husband, 
and several others, stood accused of attempting 
James's life by poison, with a' view to the restoration 
of the Douglas family, of which Lady Glammis's 
brother, the Earl of Angus, was the head. She died 
much pitied by the people, who seem to have 
thought the articles against her forged for the pur- 
pose of taking her life ; her kindred, and very name, 
being so obnoxious to the king. 

Previous to this lady's execution there would 
appear to have been but few prosecuted to death on 
the score of witchcraft, although the want of the 
justiciary records of that period leaves us in uncer- 
tainty. But in the end of the fifteenth and begin- 
ning of the sixteenth centuries, when such charges 
grew general over Europe, cases of the kind occurred 
very often in Scotland, and, as we have already 
noticed, were sometimes of a peculiar character. 
There is, indeed, a certain monotony in most tales 
of the kind. The vassals are usually induced to 
sell themselves at a small price to the Author of 111, 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 243 

who, having commonly to do with women, drives a 
very hard bargain. On the contrary, when he was 
pleased to enact the female on a similar occasion, 
he brought his gallant, one William Barton, a fortune 
of no less than fifteen pounds ; which, even suppos- 
ing it to have been the Scottish denomination of coin, 
was a very liberal endowment, compared with his 
niggardly conduct towards the fair sex on such an 
occasion. Neither did he pass false coin on this 
occasion, but, on the contrary, generously gave Bar- 
ton a merk, to keep the fifteen pounds w r hole. In 
observing on Satan's conduct in this matter, Master 
George Sinclair observes, that it is fortunate the 
Enemy is but seldom permitted to bribe so high (as 
£15 Scots), for were this the case, he might find 
few men or women capable of resisting his munifi- 
cence. I look upon this as one of the most severe 
reflections on our forefathers' poverty which is 
extant. 

In many of the Scottish witches' trials, as to the 
description of Satan's Domdaniel, and the Sabbath 
which he there celebrates, the northern superstition 
agrees with that of England. But some of the con- 
fessions depart from the monotony of repetition, and 
add some more fanciful circumstances than occur in 
the general case. Isobel Gowdie's confession, al- 
ready mentioned, is extremely minute, and some part 
of it at least may be quoted, as there are other pas- 
sages not very edifying. The witches of Auldearne, 
according to this penitent, were so numerous, that 
they were told off into squads, or covines, as they 
were termed, to each of which were appointed two 
officers. One of these was called the Maiden of 
the Covine, and was usually, like Tarn O'Shanter's 
Nannie, a girl of personal attractions, whom Satan 
placed beside himself, and treated with a particular 
attention, which greatly provoked the spite of the 
old hags, who felt themselves insulted by the pre- 



244 LETTERS ON 

ference.* When assembled, they dug up graves, 
and possessed themselves of the carcasses (of un- 
christened infants in particular), whose joints and 
members they used in their magic unguents and 
salves. When tbey desired to secure for their own 
use the crop of some neighbour, they made a pre- 
tence of ploughing it with a yoke of paddocks. 
These foul creatures drew the plough, which was 
held by the Devil himself. The plough harness and 
soams were made of quicken grass, the sock and 
coulter were made out of a riglen's horn, and the 
covine attended on the operation, praying the Devil 
to transfer to them the fruit of the ground so tra- 
versed, and leave the proprietors nothing but thistles 
and briers. The witches' sports, with their elfin 
archery, I have already noticed (page 143). They 
entered the house of the Earl of Murray himself, and 
such other mansions as were not fenced against 
them by vigil and prayer, and feasted on the provi- 
sions they found there. 

As these witches were the countrywomen of the 
weird sisters in Macbeth, the reader may be desirous 
to hear some of their spells, and of the poetry by 
which they were accompanied and enforced. They 
used to hash the flesh of an unchristened child, 
mixed with that of dogs and sheep, and place it in 
the house of those whom they devoted to destruction 
in body or goods, saying, or singing, — 

" We put this intill this hame, 
In our Lord the Devil's name ; 
The first hands that handle thee, 
Bum'd and scalded may they be! 

* This word Covine seems to signify a subdivision, or squad. The 
tree near the front of an ancient castle was called the Covine tree, pro- 
bably because the Lord received his company there. 

" He is Lord of the hunting horn, 
And King of the Covine tree ; 
He 's well loo'd in the western waters, 
But best of his aia minrde." 



DEMONOLOGT AND WITCHCRAFT. 245 

We will destroy houses and hald, 
With the sheep and nolt into the fauld ; 
And little sail come to the fore, 
Of all the rest of the little store !" 

Metamorphoses were, according to Isobel, very com- 
mon among them, and the forms of crows, cats, hares, 
and other animals, were on such occasions assumed. 
In the hare shape Isobel herself had a bad adven- 
ture. She had been sent by the Devil to Auldearne, 
in that favourite disguise, with some message to her 
neighbours, but had the misfortune to meet Peter 
Papley of Killhill's servants going to labour, having 
his hounds with them. The hounds sprung on the 
disguised witch, " And I," says Isobel, " run a very 
long time, and being hard pressed, was forced to take 
to my own house, the door being open, and there 
took refuge behind a chest." But the hounds came 
in, and took the other side of the chest, so that Isobel 
only escaped by getting into another house and gain- 
ing time to say the disenchanting rhyme : — 

11 Hare, hare, God send thee care ! 
I am in a hare's likeness now; 
But I shall be woman even now — 
Hare, hare, God send thee care 1" 

Such accidents, she said, were not uncommon, 
and the witches were sometimes bitten by the dogs, 
of which the marks remained after their restoration 
to human shape. But none had been killed on such 
occasions. 

The ceremonial of the Sabbath meetings was 
very strict. The foul fiend was very rigid in exact- 
ing the most ceremonious attention from his votaries, 
and the title of Lord when addressed by them. 
Sometimes, however, the weird sisters, when whis- 
pering among themselves, irreverently spoke of their 
sovereign by the name of Black John ; upon such 
occasions, the fiend rushed on them like a school- 
master who surprises his pupils in delict, and beat 
X 2 



246 LETTERS OW 

and buffeted them without mercy or discretion, say- 
ing, " I ken weel eneugh what you are saying of me." 
Then might be seen the various tempers of those 
whom he commanded. Alexander Elder in Earlseat, 
often fell under his lord's displeasure for neglect of 
duty, and, being weak and simple, could never defend 
himself save with tears, cries, and entreaties for 
mercy ; but some of the women, according to Isobel 
Gowdie's confession, had more of the spirit which 
animated the old dame of Kellyburn Braes. Marga- 
ret Wilson in Auldearne would "defend herself 
finely," and make her hands save her head, after the 
old Scottish manner. Bessie Wilson could also 
speak very crustily with her tongue, and " belled the 
cat" with the Devil stoutly. The others chiefly 
took refuge in crying " pity ! mercy !" and such like, 
while Satan kept beating them with wool cards, and 
other sharp scourges, without attending to their en- 
treaties or complaints. There were attendant 
devils and imps, who served the witches. They 
were usually distinguished by their liveries, which 
were sad-dun, grass-green, sea-green, and yellow. 
The witches were taught to call these imps by names, 
some of which might belong to humanity, while 
others had a diabolical sound. These were Robert 
the Jakis, Saunders the Red Reaver, Thomas the 
Feary, Swein, an old Scandinavian Duerg probably ; 
the Roaring Lion, Thief of Hell, Wait-upon-Herself, 
MacKeeler, Robert the Rule, Hendrie Craig, and 
Rorie. These names, odd and uncouth enough, are 
better imagined at least than those which Hopkins 
contrived for the imps which he discovered — such 
as Pywacket, Pecfe-in-the-Crown, Sack-and-Sugar, 
News, Vinegar-Tom, and Grizell Greedigut, the 
broad vulgarity of which epithets shows what a flat 
imagination he brought to support his impudent 
fictions. 

The Devil, who commanded the fair sisterhood, 
being fond of mimicking the forms of the Christian 



DEMONOLQGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 247 

church, used to rebaptize the witches with their 
blood, and in his own great name. The proud sto- 
mached Margaret Wilson, who scorned to take a 
blow unrepaid, even from Satan himself, was called 
Pickle-nearest-the-Wind ; her compeer, Bessie Wil- 
son, was Throw-the-Cornyard ; Elspet Nishe's was 
Bessie Bald ; Bessie Hay's nickname was, Able-and- 
Stout, and Jane Mairten, the Maiden of the Covine, 
was called Ower-the-Dike-with-it. 

Isobel took upon herself, and imputed to her sis- 
ters, as already mentioned, the death of sundry per- 
sons shot with elf-arrows, because they had omitted 
to bless themselves as the aerial flight of the hags 
swept pass them.* She had herself the temerity to 
' shoot at the Laird of Park as he was riding through 
a ford, but missed him, through the influence of the 
running stream perhaps, for which she thanks God 
in her confession ; and adds, that at the time, she 
received a great cuff from Bessie Hay for her awk- 
wardness. They devoted the male children of this 
gentleman (of the well-known family of Gordon of 
Park, I presume), to wasting illness, by the following 
lines, placing at the same time in the fire figures com- 
posed of clay mixed with paste, to represent the ob- 
ject :— 

" We put this water among this meal, 
For long dwiningt and ill heal ; 
We put it into the fire, 
To burn them up stook and stour.t 
That they be burned with our will, 
Like auy stikkle§ in a kiln." 

Such was the singular confession of Isobel Gow- 
die, made voluntarily, it would seem, and without 
compulsion of any kind, judicially authenticated by 
the subscription of the notary, clergymen, and gen- 
tlemen present ; adhered to after their separate diets, 

* See p. 144. 

t Pining. ♦ We should read perhaps, " limb and lire." 

$ Stubble. 



T 



248 LETTERS ON 

as they are called, of examination, and containing 
no variety or contradiction in its details. Whatever 
might be her state of mind in other respects, she 
seems to have been perfectly conscious of the peril- 
ous consequence of her disclosures to her own per- 
son. " I do not deserve," says she, " to be seated 
here at ease and unharmed, but rather to be stretched 
on an iron rack : nor can my crimes be atoned for, 
were I to be drawn asunder by wild horses." 

It only remains to suppose, that this wretched 
creature was under the dominion of some peculiar 
species of lunacy, to which a full perusal of her con- 
fession might perhaps guide a medical person of 
judgment and experience. Her case is interesting, 
as throwing upon the rites and ceremonies of the 
Scottish witches a light which we seek in vain else- 
where. 

Other unfortunate persons were betrayed to their 
own reproof by other means than the derangement of 
mind, which seems to have operated on-Isobel Gowdie. 
Some, as we have seen, endeavoured to escape from 
the charge of witchcraft, by admitting an intercourse 
with the fairy people ; an excuse which was never 
admitted as relevant. Others were subjected to cruel 
tortures, by which our ancestors thought the guilty 
might be brought to confession, but which far more 
frequently compelled the innocent to bear evidence 
against themselves. On this subject the celebrated 
Sir George Mackenzie, " that noble wit of Scotland," 
as he is termed by Dry den, has some most judicious 
reflections, which we shall endeavour to abstract, as 
the result of the experience of one, who, in his ca- 
pacity of Lord Advocate, had often occasion to con- 
duct witch-trials, and who, not doubting the exist- 
ence of the crime, was of opinion, that, on account 
of its very horror, it required the clearest and most 
strict probation. 

He first insists on the great improbability of the 
Fiend, without riches to bestow, and avowedly sub- 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 249 

jected to a higher power, being able to enlist such 
numbers of recruits, and the little advantage which 
he himself would gain by doing so. But, 2dly, says 
Mackenzie, " the persons ordinarily accused of this 
crime, are poor ignorant men, or else women, who 
understand not the nature of what they are accused 
of; and many mistake their own fears and apprehen- 
sions for witchcraft, of which I shall give two in- 
stances. One, of a poor weaver, who, after he had 
confessed witchcraft, being asked how he saw the 
devil, made answer, ' Like flies dancing about the 
candle.' Another, of a woman, who asked seriously 
when she was accused, if a woman might be a witch 
and not know it 1 And it is dangerous that persons, 
of all others the most simple, should be tried for a 
crime of all others the most mysterious. 3dly, 
These poor creatures, when they are defamed, be- 
come so confounded with fear, and the close prison 
in which they are kept, and so starved for want of 
meat and drink, either of which wants is enough to 
disarm the strongest reason, that hardly wiser and 
more serious people than they would escape distrac- 
tion ; and when men are confounded with fear and 
apprehension, they will imagine things the most ri- 
diculous and absurd," — of which instances are given. 
4thly, " Most of these poor creatures are tortured by 
their keepers, who, being persuaded they do God 
good service, think it their duty to vex and torment 
poor prisoners delivered up to them, as rebels to 
heaven and enemies to men ; and I know" (continues 
Sir George,) " ex certissima scientia, that most of all 
that ever were taken were tormented in this man- 
ner, and this usage was the ground of all their con- 
fession ; and albeit the poor miscreants cannot prove 
this usage, the actors being the only witnesses, yet 
the judge should be jealous of it, as that which did 
at first elicit the confession, and for fear of which 
they dare not retract it." 5thly, This learned author 
gives us an instance, how these unfortunate crea- 






250 LETTERS ON 

tures might be reduced to confession, by the very 
infamy which the accusation cast upon them, and 
which was sure to follow, condemning them for life 
to a state of necessity, misery, and suspicion, such 
as any person of reputation would willingly exchange 
for a short death, however painful. 

11 1 went when I was a Justice-deput to examine 
some women who had confessed judicially, and one 
of them, who was a silly creature, told me under 
secresie, that she had not confessed because she 
was guilty, but being a poor creature who wrought 
for her meat, and being defamed for a witch, she 
knew she would starve, for no person thereafter 
would either give her meat or lodging, and that all 
men would beat her and hound dogs at her, and that 
therefore she desired to be out of the world ; where- 
upon she wept most bitterly, and upon her knees 
called God to witness to what she said. Another 
told me, that she was afraid the devil would chal- 
lenge a right to her, after she was said to be his ser- 
vant, and would haunt her, as the minister said, 
when he was desiring her to confess, and therefore 
she desired to die. And really ministers are oft- 
times indiscreet in their zeal to have poor creatures 
to confess in this ; and I recommend to judges, that 
the wisest ministers should be sent to them, and those 
who are sent should be cautious in this particular."* 

As a corollary to this affecting story, I may quote 
the case of a woman in Lauder jail, who lay there 
with other females on a charge of witchcraft. Her 
companions in prison were adjudged to die, and she 
too had, by a confession as full as theirs, given her- 
self up as guilty. She, therefore, sent for the minis- 
ter of the town, and entreated to be put to death with 
the others who had been appointed to suffer upon the 
next Monday. The clergyman, however, as well as 
others, had adopted a strong persuasion that this con- 

* Mackenzie's Criminal Law, p. 4S. 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 251 

fession was made up in the pride of her heart, for 
the destruction of her own life, and had no founda- 
tion in truth. We give the result of the minister's 
words : 

" Therefore much pains was taken on her, by- 
ministers and others, on Saturday, Sunday, and Mon- 
day morning, that she might resile from that confes- 
sion, which was suspected to be but a temptation of 
the Devil, to destroy both her soul and body ; yea, it 
was charged home upon her by the ministers, that 
there was just ground of jealousy that her confes- 
sion was not sincere, and she was charged before the 
Lord to declare the truth, and not to take her blood 
upon her own head. Yet she stiffly adhered to what 
she had said, and cried always to be put away with 
the rest. Whereupon, on Monday morning, being 
called before the judges, and confessing before them 
what she had said, she was found guilty, and con- 
demned to die with the rest that same day. Being 
carried forth to the place of execution, she remained 
silent during the first, second, and third prayer, and 
then perceiving that there remained no more, but to 
rise and go to the stake, she lifted up her body, and 
with a loud voice cried out, ' Now, all you that see 
me this day, know that I am now to die as a witch 
by my own confession, and I free all men, especially 
the ministers and magistrates, of the guilt of my 
blood. I take it wholly upon myself— my blood be 
upon my own head ; and as I must make answer to 
the God of heaven presently, I declare I am as free 
of witchcraft as any child ; but being delated by a 
malicious woman, and put in prison under the name 
of a witch, disowned by my husband and friends, and 
seeing no ground of hope of my coming out of pri- 
son, or ever coming in credit again, through the 
temptation of the devil I made up that confession, 
on purpose to destroy my own life, being weary of 
it, and choosing rather to die than live ;' — and so died. 
Which lamentable story, as it did then astonish all 



252 LETTERS ON 

the spectators, none of which could restrain them- 
selves from tears ; so it may be to all a demonstra- 
tion of Satan's subtlety, whose design is still to de- 
stroy all, partly by tempting many to presumption, 
and some others to despair. These things to be of 
truth, are attested by an eye and ear- witness who is 
yet alive, a faithful minister of the gospel."* It is 
strange the inference does not seem to have been 
deduced, that as one woman, out of very despair, re- 
nounced her own life, the same might have been the 
case in many other instances, wherein the confes- 
sions of the accused constituted the principal, if not 
sole, evidence of the guilt. 

One celebrated mode of detecting witches, and 
torturing them at the same time to draw forth con- 
fession, was, by running pins into their body, on pre- 
tence of discovering the devil's stigma, or mark, 
which was said to be inflicted by him upon all his 
vassals, and to be insensible to pain. This species 
of search, the practice of the infamous Hopkins, was 
in Scotland reduced to a trade ; and the young witch- 
finder was allowed to torture the accused party, as 
if in exercise of a lawful calling, although Sir 
George Mackenzie stigmatizes it as a horrid impos- 
ture. I observe in the Collections of Mr. Pitcairn, 
that, at the trial of Janet Peaston of Dalkeith, the 
magistrates and ministers of that market town caused 
John Kincaid of Tranent, the common pricker, to 
exercise his craft upon her, " who found two marks 
of what he called the devil's making, and which ap- 
peared indeed to be so, for she could not feel the pin 
when it was put into either of the said marks, nor 
did they (the marks) bleed when they were taken out 
again ; and when she was asked where she thought 
the pins were put in, she pointed to a part of her 
body distant from the real place. They were pins 
of three inches in length." 

* Sinclair's Satan's Invisible World discovered, p. 43: 



DEMOKOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 253 

Besides the fact, that the persons of old people 
especially sometimes contain spots void of sensi- 
bility, there is also room to believe that the pro- 
fessed prickers used a pin, the point, or lower part 
of which was, on being pressed down, sheathed in 
the upper, which was hollow for the purpose, and 
that which appeared to enter the body did not pierce 
it at all. But, were it worth while to dwell on a 
subject so ridiculous, we might recollect that in so 
terrible an agony of shame that is likely to convulse 
a human being" under such a trial, and such personal 
insults, the blood is apt to return to the heart, and a 
slight wound, as with a pin, may be inflicted, without 
being followed by blood. In the latter end of the 
seventeenth century, this childish, indecent, and 
brutal practice, began to be called by its right name. 
Fountainhall has recorded, that in 1678, the Privy 
Council received the complaint of a poor woman, 
who had been abused by a country magistrate, and 
one of those impostors called prickers. They ex- 
pressed high displeasure against the presumption of 
the parties complained against, and treated the 
pricker as a common cheat.* 

From this and other instances, it appears that the 
predominance of the superstition of witchcraft, and 
the proneness to persecute those accused of such 
practices in Scotland, were increased by the too 
great readiness of subordinate judges to interfere in 
matters which were, in fact, beyond their jurisdic- 
tion. The Supreme Court of Justiciary was that in 
which the cause properly and exclusively ought to 
have been tried. But, in practice, each inferior judge 
in the country, the pettiest bailie ir\ the most trifling 
burgh, the smallest and most ignorant baron of a 
rude territory, took it on him to arrest, imprison, and 
examine, in which examinations, as we have already 
seen, the accused suffered the grossest injustice, 

* Foiiutainhall's Decisions, vol. 1, p. 15. 

Y 



254 LETTERS ON 

The copies of these examinations, made up of ex- 
torted confessions, or the evidence of inhabile wit- 
nesses, were all that were transmitted to the Privy 
Council, who were to direct the future mode of pro- 
cedure. Thus no creature was secure against the 
malice or folly of some defamatory accusation, if 
there was a timid or superstitious judge, though of 
the meanest denomination, to be found within the 
district. 

But, secondly, it was the course of the Privy 
Council to appoint commissions of the gentlemen 
of the country, and particularly of the clergymen, 
though not likely from their education to be freed 
from general prejudice, and peculiarly liable to be 
effected by the clamour of the neighbourhood against 
the delinquent. Now, as it is well known that such 
a commission could not be granted in a case of mur- 
der in the county where the crime was charged, 
there seems no good reason why the trial of witches, 
so liable to excite the passions, should not have been 
uniformly tried by a court whose rank and condition 
secured them from the suspicion of partiality. But 
our ancestors arranged it otherwise, and it was the 
consequence that such commissioners very seldom, 
by acquitting the persons brought before them, lost an 
opportunity of destroying a witch. 

Neither must it be forgotten, that the proof led in 
support of the prosecution was of a kind very unu- 
sual in jurisprudence. The lawyers admitted as 
evidence what they called damnum minatum^ et ma- 
lum secutum — some mischief, that is to say, follow- 
ing close upon a threat, or wish of revenge, uttered 
by the supposed witch, which, though it might be 
attributed to the most natural course of events, was 
supposed necessarily to be in consequence of the 
menaces of the accused. 

Sometimes this vague species of evidence was still 
more loosely adduced, and allegations of danger 
threatened, and mischief ensuing, were admitted, 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 255 

though the menaces had not come from the accused 
party herself. On 10th June, 1661, as John Stewart, 
one of a party of stout burghers of Dalkeith, ap- 
pointed to guard an old woman, called Christian 
Wilson, from that town to Niddrie, was cleaning his 
gun, he was slyly questioned by Janet Cocke, an- 
other confessing witch, who probably saw his courage 
was not entirely constant, " What would you think 
if the Devil raise a whirlwind, and take her from you 
on the road to-morrow]" Sure enough, on their 
journey to Niddrie, the party were actually assailed 
by a sudden gust of wind (not a very uncommon 
event in that climate), which scarce permitted the 
valiant guard to keep their feet, while the miserable 
prisoner was blown into a pool of water, and with 
difficulty raised again. There is some ground to 
hope that this extraordinary evidence was not ad- 
mitted upon the trial. 

There is a story told of an old wizard, whose real 
name was Alexander Hunter, though he was more 
generally known by the nickname of Hatteraick, 
which it had pleased the devil to confer upon him. 
This man had for some time adopted the credit of 
being a conjuror, and curing the diseases of man and 
beast, by spells and charms. One summer's day, on 
a green hill-side, the devil appeared to him in the 
shape of a grave " Mediciner," addressing him thus, 
roundly, — " Sandie, you have too long followed my 
trade without acknowledging me for a master. You 
must now enlist with me and become my servant, 
and I will teach you your trade better." Hatteraick 
consented to the proposal, and we shall let the Rev. 
Mr. George Sinclair tell the rest of the tale. 

" After this, he grew very famous through the 
country for his charming and curing of diseases in 
men and beasts, and turned a vagrant fellow like a 
jockie,* gaining meal, and flesh, and money by his 

* Or Scottish wandering beggar. 



256 LETTERS ON 

charms, such was the ignorance of many at that 
time. Whatever house he came to, none durst refuse 
Hatteraick an alms, rather for his ill than his good. 
One day he came to the yait (gate) of Samuelston, 
when some friends after dinner were going to horse. 
A young gentleman, brother to the lady, seeing him, 
switched him about the ears, saying, — ' You warlock 
carle, what have you to do here ?' Whereupon the 
fellow goes away grumbling, and was overheard to 
say, ' You shall dear buy this, ere it be long.' This 
was damnum minatum. The young gentleman 
conveyed his friends a far way off, and came home 
that way again, where he supped. After supper, tak- 
ing his horse and crossing Tyne water to go home, 
he rides through a shady piece of a haugh, commonly 
called Allers, and the evening being somewhat dark, 
he met with some persons there that begat a dreadful 
consternation in him, which for the most part he 
would never reveal. This was malum secutum. 
When he came home, the servants observed terror 
and fear in his countenance. The next day he be- 
came distracted, and was bound for several days. 
His sister, the Lady Samuelston, hearing of it, was 
heard say, ' Surely that knave Hatteraick is the cause 
of his trouble ; call for him in all haste.' When he 
had come to her, 6 Sandie,' says she, ' what is this 
you have done to my brother William 1 ?' — 'I told 
him,' says he, * I should make him repent of his 
striking me at the yait, lately.' She, giving the rogue 
fair words, and promising him his pockful of meal, 
with beef and cheese, persuaded the fellow to cure 
him again. He undertook the business ; ' but I must 
first,' says he, 'have one of his sarks' (shirts), which 
was soon gotten. What pranks he played with it can- 
not be known ; but within a short while the gentle- 
man recovered his health. When Hatteraick came 
to receive his wages, he told the lady, ' Your brother 
William shall quickly go off the country, but shall 
never return.' She, knowing the fellow's prophecies 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 257 

to hold true, caused the brother to make a disposition 
to her of all his patrimony, to the defrauding of his 
younger brother, George. After that this warlock 
had abused the country for a long time, he was at last 
apprehended at Dunbar, and brought into Edinburgh, 
and burnt upon the Castlehill."* 

Now, if Hatteraick was really put to death on 
such evidence, it is worth while to consider what was 
its real amount. A hot-tempered swaggering young 
gentleman horsewhips a beggar of ill fame for loiter- 
ing about the gate of his sister's house. The beggar 
grumbles, as any man would. The young man, rid- 
ing in the night, and probably in liquor, through a 
dark shady place, is frightened by he would not, and 
probably could not, tell what, and has a fever-fit. 
His sister employs the wizard to take off the spell 
according to his profession; and here is damnum 
miaatum, et malum secutuin, and all legal cause for 
burning a man to ashes ! The vagrant Hatteraick 
probably knew something of the wild young man 
which might soon oblige him to leave the country; 
and the selfish Lady Samuelston, learning the 
probability of his departure, committed a fraud 
which ought to have rendered her evidence in- 
admissible. 

Besides these particular disadvantages, to which 
the parties accused of this crime in Scotland were 
necessarily exposed, both in relation to the judicature 
by which they were tried, and the evidence upon 
which they were convicted, their situation was ren- 
dered intolerable by the detestation hi which they 
were held by all ranks. The gentry hated them, 
because the diseases and death of their relations and 
children were oYten imputed to them; the grossly 
superstitious vulgar abhorred them with still more 
perfect dread and loathing. And among those 
natural feelings, others of a less pardonable descrip- 

* Sinclair's Satan's Invisible World discovered, p. 98. 
Y2 



258 LETTERS ON 

tion found means to shelter themselves. In one 
case, we are informed by Mackenzie, a poor girl was 
to die for witchcraft, of whom the real crime was, 
that she had attracted too great a share, in the lady's 
opinion, of the attention of the laird. 

Having thus given some reasons why the prosecu- 
tions for witchcraft in Scotland were so numerous 
and fatal, we return to the general history of the 
trials recorded from the reign of James V. to the 
union of the kingdoms. Through the reign of Queen 
Mary these trials for sorcery became numerous, and 
the crime was subjected to heavier punishment by 
the 73d act of her 9th Parliament. But when James 
VI. approached to years of discretion, the extreme 
anxiety which he displayed to penetrate more deeply 
into mysteries which others had regarded as a very 
millstone of obscurity, drew still larger attention to 
the subject. The sovereign had exhausted his talents 
of investigation on the subject of witchcraft, and 
credit was given to all who acted in defence of the 
opinions of the reigning prince. This natural ten- 
dency to comply with the opinions of the sovereign, 
was much augmented by the disposition of the Kirk 
to the same sentiments. We have already said that 
these venerable persons entertained, with good faith, 
the general erroneous belief respecting witchcraft, — 
regarding it indeed as a crime which affected their 
own order more nearly than others in the state, since, 
especially called to the service of heaven, they were 
peculiarly bound to oppose the incursions of Satan. 
The works which remain behind them show, among 
better things, an unhesitating belief in what were 
called by them " special providences ;" and this was 
equalled, at least, by theii credulity as to the actual 
interference of evil spirits in the affairs of this world. 
They applied these principles of belief to the meanest 
causes. A horse falling lame was a snare of the 
Devil, to keep the good clergyman from preaching ; 
the arrival of a skilful farrier was accounted a special 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 259 

providence, to defeat the purpose of Satan. This 
was, doubtless, in a general sense true, since nothing 
can happen without the foreknowledge and will of 
Heaven ; but we are authorized to believe hat the 
period of supernatural interference has long passed 
away, and that the great Creator is content to ex- 
ecute his purposes by the operation of those laws 
which influence the general course of nature. Our 
ancient Scottish divines thought otherwise. Sur- 
rounded, a they conceived themselves, by the snares 
and temptations of hell, and relying on the aid of 
Heaven, they entered into war with the kingdom of 
Satan, as the crusaders of old invaded the land of 
Palestine, with the same confidence in the justice of 
their cause, and similar indifference concerning the 
feelings of those whom they accounted the enemies 
of God and man. We have already seen that even 
the conviction that a woman was innocent of the 
crime of witchcraft did not induce a worthy clergy- 
man to use any effort to withdraw her from the 
stake ; and in the same collection,* there occur some 
observable passage of God's providence to a godly 
minister, in giving him " full clearness" concerning 
Bessie Grahame, suspected of witchcraft. The 
whole detail is a curious illustration of the spirit of 
credulity which well-disposed men brought with them 
to such investigations, and how easily the gravest 
doubts were removed, rather than a witch should be 
left undetected. 

Bessie Grahame had been committed, it would 
seem, under suspicions of no great weight, since the 
minister, after various conferences, found her defence 
so successful, that he actually pitied her hard usage, 
and wished for her delivery from prison, especially as 
he doubted whether a civil court would send her to 
an assize, or whether an assize would be disposed 

* Satan's Invisible World, by Mr. George Sinclair. The author was 
Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Glasgow, and after- 
ward minister of Eastwood, in Renfrewshire. 



260 LETTERS ON 

to convict her. While the minister was in this doubt, 
a fellow named Begg was employed as a skilful 
pricker ; by whose authority it is not said, he thrust 
a great brass pin up to the head in a wart on the 
woman's back, which he affirmed to be the Devil's 
mark. A commission was granted for trial ; but still 
the chief gentlemen in the county refused to act, and 
the clergyman's own doubts were far from being re- 
moved. This put the worthy man upon a solemn 
prayer to God, " that if he would find out a way for 
giving the minister full clearness of her guilt, he 
would acknowledge it as a singular favour and 
mercy." This, according to his idea, was accom- 
plished in the following manner, which he regarded 
as an answer to his prayer. One evening the cler- 
gyman, with Alexander Simpson, the kirk-officer, and 
his own servant, had visited Bessie in her cell, to urge 
her to confession, but in vain. As they stood on the 
stair head behind the door, they heard the prisoner, 
whom they had left alone in her place of confinement, 
discoursing with another person, who used a low and 
ghostly tone, which the minister instantly recognised 
as the Foul Fiend's voice. But for this discovery, 
we should have been of opinion that Bessie Grahame 
talked to herself, as melancholy and despairing 
wretches are in the habit of doing. But as Alexander 
Simpson pretended to understand the sense of what 
was said within the cell, and the minister himself 
was pretty sure he heard two voices at the same time, 
he regarded the overhearing this conversation as the 
answer of the Deity to his petition — and thenceforth 
was troubled with no doubts either as to the 
reasonableness and propriety of his prayer, or the 
guilt of Bessie Grahame, though she died obstinate, 
and would not confess ; nay, made a most decent 
and Christian end, acquitting her judges and jury of 
her blood, in respect of the strong delusion under 
which they laboured. 
Although the ministers, whose opinions were but 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 261 

too strongly, on this head, in correspondence with 
the prevailing superstitions of the people, nourished, 
in the early system of church government, a con- 
siderable desire to secure their own immunities and 
privileges as a national church, which failed not at 
last to be brought into contact with the king's pre- 
rogative ; yet, in the earlier part of his reign, James, 
when freed from the influence of such a favourite as 
the profligate Stuart, Earl of Arran, w T as, in his per- 
sonal qualities, rather acceptable to the clergy of his 
kingdom and period. At his departing from Scotland, 
on his romantic expedition to bring home a consort 
from Denmark, he very politically recommended to 
the clergy to contribute all that lay in their power to 
assist the civil magistrates, and preserve the public 
peace of the kingdom. The king, after his return, 
acknowledged, with many thanks, the care which the 
clergy had bestowed in this particular. Nor were 
they slack in assuming the merit to themselves, for 
they often reminded him, in their future discords, that 
his kingdom had never been so quiet as during his 
voyage to Denmark, when the clergy were, in a great 
measure, intrusted with the charge of the public 
government. 

During the halcyon period of union between kirk 
and king, their hearty agreement on the subject of 
witchcraft failed not to heat the fires against the per- 
sons suspected of such iniquity. The clergy con- 
sidered that the Roman Catholics, their principal 
enemies, were equally devoted to the Devil, the 
mass, and the witches, which, in their opinion, were 
mutually associated together, and natural allies in 
the great cause of mischief. On the other hand, the 
pedantic sovereign having exercised his learning and 
ingenuity in the Demonologia, considered the execu- 
tion of every witch who was burned, as a necessary 
conclusion of his own royal syllogisms. The juries 
were also afraid of the consequences of acquittal to 
themselves, being liable to suffer under an assize of 



262 LETTERS ON 

error, should they be thought to have been unjustly 
merciful ; and as the witches tried were personally 
as insignificant as the charge itself was odious, there 
was no restraint whatever upon those in whose hands 
their fate lay, and there seldom wanted some such 
confession as we have often mentioned, or such evi- 
dence as that collected by the minister who over- 
heard the dialogue between the witch and her master, 
to salve their consciences, and reconcile them to 
bring in a verdict of Guilty. 

The execution of witches became, for these rea- 
sons, very common in Scotland, where the king 
seemed in some measure to have made himself a 
party in the cause, and the clergy esteemed them- 
selves such from the very nature of their profession. 
But the general spite of Satan and his adherents 
was supposed to be especially directed against James, 
on account of his match with Anne of Denmark — 
the union of a Protestant princess with a Protestant 
prince, the King of Scotland, and heir of England, 
being, it could not be doubted, an event which struck 
the whole kingdom of darkness with alarm. James 
was self-gratified by the unusual spirit which he had 
displayed on his voyage in quest of his bride, and 
well disposed to fancy that he had performed it in 
positive opposition, not only to the indirect policy 
of Elizabeth, but to the malevolent purpose of hell 
itself. His fleet had been tempest-tossed, and he very 
naturally believed that the Prince of the power of 
the air had been personally active on the occasion. 

The principal person implicated in these heretical 
and treasonable undertakings, was one Agnes Simp- 
son, or Sampson, called the Wise Wife of Keith, and 
described by Archbishop Spottiswood, not as one of 
the base or ignorant class of ordinary witches, but 
a grave matron, composed and deliberate in her an- 
swers, which were all to some purpose. This grave 
dame, from the terms of her indictment, seems to 
have been a kind of white witch, affecting to cure 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 263 

diseases by words and charms, a dangerous profes- 
sion considering the times in which she lived. Nei- 
ther did she always keep the right and sheltered side 
of the law in such delicate operations. One article 
of her indictment proves this, and at the same time 
establishes, that the Wise Woman of Keith knew 
how to tarn her profession to account : for, being 
consulted in the illness of Isobel Hamilton, she gave 
her opinion, that nothing could amend her unless the 
Devil was raised; and the sick woman's husband 
startling at the proposal, and being indifferent per- 
haps about the issue, would not bestow the necessary 
expenses, whereupon the Wise Wife refused to raise 
the Devil, and the patient died. This woman was 
principally engaged in an extensive conspiracy to 
destroy the fleet of the queen by raising a tempest ; 
and to take the king's life by anointing his linen 
with poisonous materials, and by constructing 
figures of clay, to be wasted and tormented after the 
usual fashion of necromancy. 

Among her associates was an unhappy lady of 
much higher degree. This was Dame Euphane Mac- 
Calzean, the widow of a Senator of the College of 
Justice, and a person infinitely above the rank of the 
obscure witches with whom she was joined in her 
crime. Mr. Pitcairn supposes, that this connexion 
may have risen from her devotion to the Catholic 
faith, and her friendship for the Earl of Bothwell. 

The third person in this singular league of sor- 
cerers was Doctor John Fian, otherwise Cunning- 
hame, who was schoolmaster at Tranent, and en- 
joyed much hazardous reputation as a warlock. 
This man was made the hero of the whole tale of 
necromancy, in an account of it published at Lon- 
don, and entitled, " News from Scotland," which has 
been lately reprinted by the Roxburghe Club. It is 
remarkable that the Scottish witchcrafts were not 
thought sufficiently horrible by the editor of this 
tract, without adding to them the story of a filter 



264 LETTERS ON 

being applied to a cow's hair instead of that of the 
young woman for whom it was designed, and telling 
how the animal came lowing after the sorcerer to 
his school-room door, like a second Pasiphae, the 
original of which charm occurs in the story of Apu- 
leius.* 

Besides these persons, there was one Barbara Na- 
pier, alias Douglas, a person of some rank ; Geillis 
Duncan, a very active witch, and about thirty other 
poor creatures of the lowest condition, — among the 
rest, and doorkeeper to the conclave, a silly old 
ploughman, called as his nickname Graymeal, who 
was cuffed by the Devil for saying simply, " God 
bless the king !" 

When the monarch of Scotland sprung this strong 
covey of his favourite game, they afforded the 
Privy Council and him sport for the greatest part of 
the remaining winter. He attended on the examina- 
tions himself, and by one means or other, they were 
indifferently well dressed to his palate. 

Agnes Sampson, the grave matron before men- 
tioned, after being an hour tortured by the twisting 
of a cord around her head, according to the custom 
of the Buccaneers, confessed that she had consulted 
with one Richard Grahame concerning the probable 
length of the king's life, and the means of shorten- 
ing it. But Satan, to whom they at length resorted 
for advice, told them in French respecting King- 
James, II est un homme de Dieu. The poor woman 
also acknowledged that she had held a meeting with 
those of her sisterhood, who had charmed a cat by 
certain spells, having four joints of men knit to its 
feet, which they threw into the sea to excite a tem- 
pest. Another frolic they had, when, like the weird 
sisters in Macbeth, they embarked in sieves with 
much mirth and jollity, the Fiend rolling himself 
before them upon the waves, dimly seen, and resem- 

* Lucii Apuleii, Metamorphoses, lib. iii. 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 265 

bling a huge haystack in size and appearance. They 
went on board of a foreign ship richly laden with 
wines, where, invisible to the crew, they feasted till 
the sport grew tiresome, and then Satan sunk the 
vessel and all on board. 

Fian, or Cunninghame, was also visited by the 
sharpest tortures, ordinal*} 7 and extraordinary. The 
nails were torn from his fingers with smiths' pincers ; 
pins were driven into the places which the nails 
usually defended; his knees were crushed in the 
boots, his finger-bones were splintered in the pil- 
nie winks. At length his constancy, hitherto sus- 
tained, as the bystanders supposed, by the help of 
the Devil, was fairly overcome, and he gave an ac- 
count of a great witch-meeting at North Berwick, 
where they paced round the church withershinns, 
that is in reverse of the motion of the sun. Fian 
then blew into the lock of the church-door, where- 
upon the bolts gave away, the unhallowed crew en- 
tered, and their master the Devil appeared to his 
servants in the shape of a black man occupying the 
pulpit. He was saluted with an " Hail, Master !" 
but the company were dissatisfied with his not ha- 
ving brought a picture of the king, repeatedly pro- 
mised, which was to place his majesty at the mercy 
of this infernal crew. The Devil was particularly 
upbraided on this subject by divers respectable-looking 
females, — no question, Euphane MacCalzean, Bar- 
Dara Napier, Agnes Sampson, and some other ama- 
teur witch above those of the ordinary profession. 
The Devil, on this memorable occasion, forgot him- 
self, and called Fian by his own name, instead of 
the demoniacal sobriquet of Rob the Rowar, which 
had been assigned to him as Master of the. Rows, or 
Roils. This was considered as bad taste, and the 
rule is still observed at every rendezvous of forgers, 
smugglers, or the like, where it is accounted very 
indifferent manners to name an individual by his 
own name, in case of affording ground of evidence 
Z 



266 LETTERS ON 

which may upon a day of trial be brought against 
him. Satan, something disconcerted, concluded 
the evening with a divertisement and a dance after 
his own manner. The former consisted in disin- 
terring a new buried corpse, and dividing it in frag- 
ments among the company, and the ball was main- 
tained by well-nigh two hundred persons, who 
danced a ring dance, singing this chant — 

" Cummer, gang ye before ; Cummer, gang ye. 
Gif ye will not gang before, Cummers, let me." 

After this choral exhibition, the music seems to 
have been rather imperfect, the number of dancers 
considered. Geillis Duncan was the only instru- 
mental performer, and she played on a Jew's harp, 
called in Scotland a trump. Dr. Fian, muffled, led 
the ring, and was highly honoured, generally acting 
as clerk or recorder, as above mentioned. 

King James was deeply interested in those mys- 
terious meetings, and took great delight to be pre- 
sent at the examinations of the accused. He sent 
for Geillis Duncan, and caused her to play before 
him the same tune to which Satan and his com- 
panions led the brawl in North Berwick church- 
yard.* His ears were gratified in another way, for 
at this meeting it was said the witches demanded of 
the Devil why he did bear such enmity against 
the king] who returned the flattering answer, that 
the king was the greatest enemy whom he had in 
the world. 

Almost all these poor wretches were executed, 
nor did Euphane MacCalzean's station in life save 
her from the common doom, which was strangling 
to death, and binning to ashes thereafter. The 
majority of the jury which tried Barbara Napier, 

* The music of this witch tune is unhappily lost. But that of an- 
other, believed to have been popular on such occasions, is preserved. 
The silly bit chicken, gar cast her a pickle, 
And she will grow mickle, 

And she will do good. 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 267 

having acquitted her of attendance at the North 
Berwick meeting, were themselves threatened with 
a trial for wilful error upon an assize, and could only 
escape from severe censure and punishment by 
pleading Guilty, and submitting themselves to the 
king's pleasure. This rigorous and iniquitous con- 
duct shows a sufficient reason why there should be 
so few acquittals from a charge of witchcraft, where 
the juries were so much at the mercy of the crown. 

It would be disgusting to follow the numerous 
cases in which the same uniform credulity, the same 
extorted confessions, the same prejudiced and exag- 
gerated evidence, concluded in the same tragedy at 
the stake and the pile. The alterations and trench- 
ing which lately took place for the purpose of im- 
proving the Castlehill of Edinburgh, displayed the 
ashes of the numbers who had perished in this man- 
ner, of whom a large proportion must have been 
executed between 1590, when the great discovery 
was made concerning Euphane MacCalzean and the 
Wise Wife of Keith, and their accomplices, and the 
union of the crowns. 

Nor did King James's removal to England soften 
this horrible persecution. In Sir Thomas Hamilton's 
Minutes of Proceedings in the Privy Council, there 
occurs a singular entry, evincing plainly that the 
Earl of Mar and others of James's Council, were be- 
coming fully sensible of the desperate iniquity and 
inhumanity of these proceedings. I have modernized 
the spelling, that this appalling record maybe legible 
to all my readers. 

" 1608, December 1. The Earl of Mar declared 
to the Council, that some women were taken in 
Broughton as witches, and being put to an assize, 
and convicted, albeit they persevered constant in 
their denial to the end, yet they were burned quick 
[alive], after such a cruel manner, that some of them 
died in despair, renouncing and blaspheming [God]; 




268 LETTERS ON 

and others, half burned, brake out of the fire,* and 
were cast quick in it again, till they were burned to 
the death." 

This singular document shows, that even in the 
reign of James, so soon as his own august person 
was removed from Edinburgh, his dutiful Privy 
Council began to think that they had supped full 
with horrors, and were satiated with the excess of 
cruelty, which dashed half-consumed wretches back 
into the flames from which they were striving to 
escape. 

But the picture, however much it may have been 
disgusting and terrifying to the Council at the time, 
and though the intention of the entry upon the re- 
cords was obviously for the purpose of preventing 
such horrid cruelties in future, had no lasting effect 
on the course of justice, as the severities against 
witches were most unhappily still considered neces- 
sary. Through the whole of the sixteenth and the 
greater part of the seventeenth century, little abate- 
ment in the persecution of this metaphysical crime 
of witchcraft can be traced in the kingdom. Even 
while the Independents held the reins of govern- 
ment, Cromwell himself, and his major-generals and 
substitutes were obliged to please the common people 
of Scotland by abandoning the victims accused of 
witchcraft to the power of the law, though the 
journals of the time express the horror and disgust 
with which the English sectarians beheld a practice 
so inconsistent with their own humane principle of 
universal toleration. 

Instead of plunging into a history of these events, 
which, generally speaking, are in detail as mono- 

* I am obliged to the kindness of Mr. Pitcairn for this singular ex- 
tract—The southern reader must be informed, that the jurisdiction or 
regality of Broughton embraced Holyrood, Canongate, Leith, and other 
suburban parts of Edinburgh, and bore the same relation to that city as 
the borough of Southwark to London. 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 269 

tonous as they are melancholy, it may amuse the 
reader to confine the narrative to a single trial, having 
in the course of it some peculiar and romantic 
events. It is the tale of a sailor's wife, more tragic in 
its event than that of the chesnut-muncher inMacbeth.* 

Margaret Barclay, wife of Archibald Dein, burgess 
of Irvine, had been slandered by her sister-in-law, 
Janet Lyal, the spouse of John Dein, brother of 
Archibald, and by John Dein himself, as guilty of 
some act of theft. Upon this provocation Margaret 
Barclay raised an action of slander before the church 
court, which prosecution, after some procedure, the 
kirk-session discharged, by directing a reconciliation 
between the parties. Nevertheless, although the 
two women shook hands before the court, yet the 
said Margaret Barclay declared that she gave her 
hand only in obedience to the kirk-session, but that 
she still retained her hatred and ill-will against John 
Dein and his wife Janet Lyal. About this time the 
bark of John Dein was about to sail for France, and 
Andrew Train, or Tran, Provost of the burgh of 
Irvine, who was an owner of the vessel, went with 
him to superintend the commercial part of the voy- 
age. Two other merchants of some consequence 
went in the same vessel, with a sufficient number 
of mariners. Margaret Barclay, the revengeful per- 
son already mentioned, was heard to imprecate 
curses upon the provost's argosy, praying to God 
that sea nor salt-water might never bear the ship, 
and that partans (crabs) might eat the crew at the 
bottom of the sea. 

When, under these auspices, the ship was absent 
on her voyage, a vagabond fellow, named John 
Stewart, pretending to have knowledge of jugglery, 
and to possess the power of a spaeman, came to the 
residence of Tran, the provost, and dropped explicit 



* A copy of the record of the trial which took place in Ayrshire 
was sent to me by a friend, who withheld his name, so that I can only 
thank him in this general acknowledgment. 
Z2 







270 LETTERS ON 

hints that the ship was lost, and that the good 
woman of the house was a widow. The sad truth 
was afterward learned on more certain information. 
Two of the seamen, after a space of doubt and 
anxiety, arrived with the melancholy tidings that 
the bark, of which John Dein was skipper, and 
Provost Tran part owner, had been wrecked on the 
coast of England, near Padstow, when all on board 
had been lost, except the two sailors who brought 
the notice. Suspicion of sorcery, in those days 
easily awakened, was fixed on Margaret Barclay, 
who had imprecated curses on the ship ; and on John 
Stewart, the juggler, who had seemed to know of 
the evil fate of the voyage before he could have 
become acquainted with it by natural means. 

Stewart, who was first apprehended, acknow- 
ledged that Margaret Barclay, the other suspected 
person, had applied to him to teach her some magic 
arts, " in order that she might get gear, kyes milk, 
love of man, her heart's desire on such persons as 
had done her wrong, and, finally, that she might 
obtain the fruit of sea and land." Stewart declared 
that he denied to Margaret that he possessed the 
said arts himself, or had the power of communi- 
cating them. So far was well ; but, true or false, 
he added a string of circumstances, whether volun- 
tarily declared or extracted by torture, which tended 
to fix the cause of the loss of the bark on Margaret 
Barclay. He had come, he said, to this woman's 
house in Irvine, shortly after the ship set sail from 
harbour. He went to Margaret's house by night, 
and found her engaged, with other two women, in 
making clay figures ; one of the figures was made 
handsome, with fair hair, supposed to represent 
Provost Tran. They then proceeded to mould a 
figure of a ship in clay, and during this labour the 
Devil appeared to the company in the shape of a 
handsome black lap-dog, such as ladies use to keep.* 

* This may remind the reader 0/ Cazotte's DiabU Jlmoureux. 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 271 

He added, that the whole party left the house to- 
gether, and went into an empty wastehouse nearer 
the seaport, which house he pointed out to the city 
magistrates. From this house they went to the 
seaside, followed by the black lap-dog aforesaid, 
and cast in the figures of clay representing the ship 
and the men ; after which the sea raged, roared, and 
became red like the juice of madder in a dyer's I 
caldron. 

This confession having been extorted from the un-^ 
fortunate juggler, the female acquaintances of Mar- 
garet Barclay were next convened, that he might 
point out her associates in forming the charm, when 
he pitched upon a woman called Isobel Insh, or Tay- 
lor, who resolutely denied having ever seen him be- 
fore. She was imprisoned, however, in the belfry 
of the church. An addition to the evidence against 
the poor old woman Insh was then procured from 
her own daughter, Margaret Tailzeour, a child of 
eight years old, who lived as servant with Margaret 
Barclay, the person principally accused. This child, 
who was keeper of a baby belonging to Margaret 
Barclay, either from terror, or the innate love of 
falsehood, which we have observed as proper to child- 
hood, declared, that she was present when the fatal 
models of clay were formed, and that in plunging 
them in the sea, Margaret Barclay her mistress, and 
her mother Isobel Insh, were assisted by another wo- 
man, and a girl of fourteen years old, who dwelt at 
the town-head. Legally considered, the evidence of 
this child was contradictory, and inconsistent with 
the confession of the juggler, for it assigned other 
particulars and dramatis personce in many respects 
different. But all was accounted sufficiently regu- 
lar, especially since the girl failed not to swear to 
the presence of the black dog, to whose appearance 
she also added the additional terrors of that of a 
black man. The dog also, according to her account, 
emitted flashes from its jaws and nostrils, tojllumi- 



272 LETTERS ON 

nate the witches during the performance of the spel£ 
The child maintained this story even to her mother's 
face, only alleging that Isobel Insh remained behind 
in the wastehouse, and was not present when the 
images were put into the sea. For her own counte- 
nance and presence on the occasion, and to ensure 
her secrecy, her mistress promised her a pair of new 
shoes. 

John Stewart, being re-examined, and confronted 
with the child, was easily compelled to allow that 
the " little smatchet" was there, and to give that mar- 
vellous account of his correspondence with Elrland, 
which we have noticed elsewhere. 

The conspiracy thus far, as they conceived, dis- 
closed, the magistrates and ministers wrought hard 
with Isobel Insh, to prevail upon her to tell the truth ; 
and she at length acknowledged her presence at the 
time when the models of the ship and mariners were 
destroyed, but endeavoured so to modify her decla- 
ration as to deny all personal accession to the guilt. 
This poor creature almost admitted the supernatural 
powers imputed to her, promising Bailie Dunlop (also 
a mariner), by whom she was imprisoned, that if he 
would dismiss her, he should never make a bad voy- 
age, but have success in all his dealings by sea and 
land. She was finally brought to promise, that she 
would fully confess the whole that she knew of the 
affair on the morrow. 

But finding herself in so hard a strait, the unfortu- 
nate woman made use of the darkness to attempt an 
escape. With this view she got out by a back win- 
dow of the belfry, although, says the report, there 
were " iron bolts, locks, and fetters on her ;" and at- 
tained the roof of the church, where, losing her foot- 
ing, she sustained a severe fall, and was greatly 
bruised. Being apprehended, Bailie Dunlop again 
urged her to confess ; but the poor woman was deter- 
mined to appeal to a more merciful tribunal, and 
maintained her innocence to the last minute of her 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 273 

life, denying all that she had formerly admitted, and 
dying five days after her fall from the roof of the 
church. The inhabitants of Irvine attributed her 
death to poison. 

The scene began to thicken, for a commission 
was granted for the trial of the two remaining per- 
sons accused, namely, Stewart the juggler, and Mar- 
garet Barclay. The day of trial being arrived, the 
following singular events took place, which we give 
as stated in the record : — 

"My Lord and Earl of Eglintoune (who dwells 
within the space of one mile to the said burgh), ha- 
ving come to the said burgh at the earnest request 
of the said Justices, for giving to them of his lord- 
ship's countenance, concurrence, and assistance, »n 
trying of the foresaid devilish practises, conform to 
the tenor of the foresaid commission, the said John 
Stewart, for his better preserving to the day of the 
assize, was put in a sure lockfast booth, where no 
manner of person might have access to him till the 
downsitting of the Justice Court, and for avoiding 
of putting violent hands on himself, he was very 
strictly guarded, and fettered by the arms, as use is. 
And upon that same day of the assize, about half an 
hour before the downsitting of the Justice Court, 
Mr. David Dickson, minister at Irvine, and Mr. 
George Dunbar, minister of Air, having gone to him, 
to exhort him to call on his God for mercy for his 
bygone wicked and evil life, and that God would of 
his infinite mercy loose him out of the bonds of the 
devil, whom he had served these many years bygone, 
he acquiesced in their prayer and godly exhortation, 
and uttered these words : ' I am so straitly guarded, 
that it lies not in my power to get my hand to take 
off my^ bonnet, nor to get bread to my mouth.' And 
immediately after the departing of the two ministers 
from him, the juggler being sent for at the desire of 
my Lord of Eglintoune, to be confronted with a wo- 
man of the burgh of Air, called Janet Bous, who was 



274 LETTERS ON 

apprehended by the magistrates of the burgh of Air 
for witchcraft, and sent to the burgh of Irvine pur- 
posely for that affair, he was found by the burgh offi- 
cers who went about him, strangled and hanged by 
the cruik of the door, with a tait of hemp, or a string 
made of hemp, supposed to have been his garter, or 
string of his bonnet, not above the length of two 
span long, his knees not being from the ground half 
a span, and was brought out of the house, his life 
not being totally expelled. But, notwithstanding 
of whatsoever means used in the contrary for remeid 
of his life, he revived not, but so ended his life mise- 
rably, by the help of the Devil his master. 

" And because there was then only in life the said 
Margaret Barclay, and that the persons summoned 
to pass upon her assize, and upon the assize of the 
juggler, who, by the help of the Devil his master, 
had put violent hands on himself, were all present 
within the said burgh ; therefore, and for eschewing 
of the like in the person of the said Margaret, our 
sovereign lord's justices in that part, particularly 
above-named, constituted by commission, after so- 
lemn deliberation and advice of the said noble lord, 
whose concurrence and advice was chiefly required 
and taken in this matter, concluded with all possible 
diligence before the downsitting of the Justice 
Court, to put the said Margaret in torture ; in respect 
the Devil, by God's permission, had made her asso- 
ciates, who were the lights of the cause, to be their 
own burrioes (slayers). They used the torture 
underwritten as being most safe and gentle (as the 
said noble lord assured the said justices), by putting 
of her two bare legs in a pair of stocks, and there- 
after by onlaying of certain iron gauds (bars), seve- 
rally, one by one, and then eiking and augmenting 
the weight by laying on more gauds, and in easing 
of her by offtaking of the iron gauds one or more, 
as occasion offered, which iron gauds were but little 
short gauds, and broke not the skin of her legs, &c. 



DEM05TOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 279 

" After using of the which kind of gentle torture, 
the said Margaret began, according to the increase 
of the pain, to cry, and crave for God's cause to take 
off her shins the foresaid irons, and she should de- 
clare truly the whole matter. Which being 1 removed, 
she began at her former denial : and being of new 
assayed in torture as of befoir, she then uttered these 
words : ' Take off, take off, and before God I shall 
show you the whole form V 

" And the said irons being of new, upon her faith- 
full promise, removed, she then desired my Lord of 
Eglintoune, the said four justices, and the said Mr. 
David Dickson, minister of the burgh, Mr. George 
Dunbar, minister of Ayr, and Mr. Mitchell Wallace, 
minister of Kilmarnock, and Mr. John Cunninghame, 
minister of Dairy, and Hugh Kennedy, provost of 
Ayr, to come by themselves, and to remove all 
others, and she should declare truly, as she should 
answer to God, the whole matter. Whose desire in 
that being fulfilled, she made her confession in this 
manner, but (i. e. without) any kind of demand, 
freely, without interrogation; God's name by earnest 
prayer being called upon for opening of her lips, and 
easing of her heart, that she, by rendering of the 
truth, might glorify and magnify his holy name, and 
disappoint the enemy of her salvation." — Trial of 
Margaret Barclay, 4*c, 1618. 

Margaret Barclay, who was a young and lively 
person, had hitherto conducted herself like a pas- 
sionate and higb -tempered woman innocently ac- 
cused, and the only appearance of conviction ob- 
tained against her was, that she carried about her 
rowan-tree and coloured thread, to make, as she 
said, her cow give milk, when it began to fail. But 
the gentle torture — a strange junction of words — 
recommended as an anodyne by the good Lord 
Eglinton — the placing, namely, her legs in the stocks, 
and loading her bare shins with bars of iron, over- 
came her resolution; when, at her screams and 



$76 LETTERS ON 

declarations that she was willing to tell all, the 
weights were removed. She then told a story of 
destroying the ship of John Dein, affirming, that it 
was with the purpose of killing only her brother-in- 
law and Provost Tran, and saving the rest of the 
crew. She at the same time involved in the guilt 
Isobel Crawford. This poor woman was also appre- 
hended, and, in great terror, confessed the imputed 
crime, retorting the principal blame on Margaret 
Barclay herself. The trial was then appointed to 
proceed, when Alexander Dean, the husband of Mar- 
garet Barclay, appeared in court with a lawyer to act 
in his wife's behalf. Apparently, the sight of her 
husband awakened some hope and desire of life, 
for when the prisoner was asked by the lawyer 
whether she wished to be defended, she answered, 
"As you please. But all I have confessed was 
in agony of torture; and, before God, all I have 
spoken is false and untrue." To which she pathe- 
tically added — " Ye have been too long in coming." 

The jury, unmoved by these affecting circumstan- 
ces, proceeded upon the principle that the confession 
of the accused could not be considered as made 
uuder the influence of torture, since the bars were 
not actually upon her limbs at the time it was deli- 
vered, although they were placed at her elbow ready 
to be again laid on her bare shins, if she was less 
explicit in her declaration than her auditors wished. 
On this nice distinction, they in one voice found 
Margaret Barclay guilty. It is singular that she 
should have again returned to her confession after 
sentence, and died affirming it ; — the explanation of 
which, however, might be, either that she had really 
in her ignorance and folly tampered with some idle 
spells, or that an apparent penitence for her offence, 
however imaginary, was the only mode in which she 
could obtain any share of public sympathy at her 
death, or a portion of the prayers of the clergy and 
congregation, which, in her circumstances, she 



DEMOXOLOGT AND WITCHCRAFT. 277 

might be willing to purchase, even by confession of 
what all believed respecting her. It is remarkable, 
that she earnestly entreated the magistrates that 
no harm should be done to Isobel Crawford, the 
woman whom she had herself accused. This un- 
fortunate young creature was strangled at the stake, 
and her body burned to ashes, having died with many 
expressions of religion and penitence. 

It was one fatal consequence of these cruel per- 
secutions, that one pile was usually lighted at the 
embers of another. Accordingly, in the present case, 
three victims having already perished by this accusa- 
tion, the magistrates, incensed at the nature of the 
crime, so perilous as it seemed to men of a maritime 
life, and at a loss of several friends of their own, one 
of when had been their principal magistrate, did not 
forbear to insist against Isobel Crawford, inculpated 
by Margaret Barclay's confession. A new commis- 
sion was granted for her trial, and after the assistant 
minister of Irvine, Mr. David Dickson, had made 
earnest prayers to God for opening her obdurate and 
closed heart, she was subjected to the torture of 
iron bars laid upon her bare shins, her feet being in 
the stocks, as in the case of Margaret Barclay. 

She endured this torture with incredible firmness, 
since she did " admirably, witbout any kind of din 
or exclamation, suffer above thirty stone of iron to 
be laid on her legs, never shrinking thereat in any 
sort, but remaining, as it were, steady." But in 
shifting the situation of the iron bars, and removing 
them to another part of her shins, her constancy gave 
way ; she broke out into horrible cries (though not 
more than three bars were then actually on her per- 
son) of—" Tak aff— tak aff !" On being relieved from 
the torture, she made the usual confession of all that 
she was charged with, and of a connexion with the 
Devil which had subsisted for several years. Sen- 
tence was given against her accordingly. After this 
had been denounced, she openly denied all her former 
A a 



278 LETTERS Off 

confessions, and died without any sign of repent - 
ance, offering repeated interruptions to the minister 
in his prayer, and absolutely refusing to pardon the 
executioner. 

This tragedy happened in the year 1613, and re- 
corded as it is very particularly, and at considerable 
length, forms the most detailed specimen I have met 
with, of a Scottish trial for witchcraft, — illustrating, 
in particular, how poor wretches, abandoned, as they 
conceived, by God and the world, deprived of all 
human sympathy, and exposed to personal tortures 
of an acute description, became disposed to throw 
away the lives that were rendered bitter to them, by 
a voluntary confession of guilt, rather than struggle 
hopelessly against so many evils. Four persons here 
lost their lives, merely because the throwing some 
clay models into the sea, a fact told differently by the 
witnesses who spoke of it, corresponded with the 
season, for no day was fixed, in which a particular 
vessel was lost. It is scarce possible that, after 
reading such a story, a man of sense can listen for an 
instant to the evidence founded on confessions thus 
obtained, which has been almost the sole reason by 
which a few individuals, even in modern times, have 
endeavoured to justify a belief in the existence of 
witchcraft. 

The result of the judicial examination of a crimi- 
nal, when extorted by such means, is the most suspi- 
cious of all evidence, and even when voluntarily 
given, is scarce admissible without the corroboration 
of other testimony. 

We might here take leave of our Scottish history 
of witchcraft, by barely mentioning that many hun- 
dreds, nay perhaps thousands, lost their lives during 
two centuries, on such charges and such evidence as 
proved the death of those persons in the trial of the 
Irvine witches. One case, however, is so much dis- 
tinguished by fame among the numerous instances 
which occurred in Scottish history, that we are 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 279 

under the necessity of bestowing a few words 
upon those celebrated persons, Major Wier and his 
sister. 

The case of this notorious wizard was remarkable 
chiefly from his being a man of some condition (the 
son of a gentleman, and his mother a lady of family 
in Clydesdale), which was seldom the case with those 
that fell under similar accusations. It was also re- 
markable in his case that he had been a Covenanter, 
and peculiarly attached to that cause. In the years 
of the Commonwealth, this man was trusted and em- 
ployed by those who were then at the head of affairs, 
and was, in 1649, commander of the city-guard of Edin- 
burgh, which procured him his title of Major. In this 
capacity he was understood, as was indeed implied in 
the duties of that officer at the period, to be very strict 
in executing severity upon such Royalists as fell under 
his military charge. It appears that the Major, with a 
maiden sister who had kept his house, was subject to 
fits of melancholic lunacy, an infirmity easily recon- 
cilable with the formal pretences which he made to 
a high show of religious zeal. He was peculiar in 
his gift of prayer, and as was the custom of the 
period, was often called to exercise this talent by the 
bedside of sick persons, until it came to be observed, 
that, by some association, which it was more easy 
to conceive than to explain, he could not pray with 
the same warmth and fluency of expression, unless 
he had in his hand a stick of peculiar shape and ap- 
pearance, which he generally walked with. It was 
noticed, in short, that when this stick was taken from 
him, his wit and talent appeared to forsake him. 
This Major Wier was seized by the magistrates on a 
strange whisper that became current respecting vile 
practices, which he seems to have admitted without 
either shame or contrition. The disgusting profli- 
gacies which he confessed, were of such a character, 
that it may be charitably hoped that most of them 
were the fruits of a depraved imagination, though he 



280 LETTERS ON 

appears to have been in many respects a wicked and 
criminal hypocrite. When he had completed his 
confession, he avowed solemnly that he had not con- 
fessed the hundredth part of the crimes which he 
had committed. From this time he would answer 
no interrogatory, nor would he have recourse to 
prayer, arguing, that as he had no hope whatever of 
escaping Satan, there was no need of incensing him 
by vain efforts at repentance. His witchcraft seems 
to have been taken for granted on his own confes- 
sion ; as his indictment was chiefly founded on the 
same document, in which he alleged he had never 
seen the Devil, but any feeling he had of him was in 
the dark. He received sentence of death, which he 
suffered 12th April, 1670, at the Gallow-hill, between 
Leith and Edinburgh. He died so stupidly sullen 
and impenitent, as to justify the opinion that he was 
oppressed with a kind of melancholy frenzy, the 
consequence perhaps of remorse, but such as urged 
him not to repent, but to despair. It seems probable 
that he was burned alive. His sister, with whom he 
was supposed to have had an incestuous connexion, 
was condemned also to death, leaving a stronger and 
more explicit testimony of their mutual sins than 
could be extracted from the Major. She gave as 
usual, some account of her connexion with the queen 
of the fairies, and acknowledged the assistance she 
received from that sovereign in spinning an unusual 
quantity of yarn. Of her brother, she said, that one 
day a friend called upon them at noonday with a 
fiery chariot, and invited them to visit a friend at 
Dalkeith, and that while there her brother received 
information of the event of the battle of Worcester. 
No one saw the style of their equipage except them- 
selves. On the scaffold, this woman, determining, 
as she said, to die "with the greatest shame possible," 
was with difficulty prevented from throwing off her 
clothes before the people, and with scarce less trou- 
ble was she flung from the ladder by the executioner. 



DEM0N0L0GY AND WITCHCRAFT. 281 

Her last words were in the tone of the sect to which 
her brother had so long affected to belong : "Many," 
she said, " weep and lament for a poor old wretch 
like me ; but alas ! few are weeping for a broken 
Covenant." 

The Scottish prelatists, upon whom the Covenant- 
ers used to throw many aspersions respecting their 
receiving proof against shot from the Devil, and 
other infernal practices, rejoiced to have an oppor- 
tunity, in their turn, to retort on their adversaries the 
charge of sorcery. Dr. Hickes, the author of " The- 
saurus Septentrionalis," published on the subject of 
Major Weir, and the case of Mitchell, who fired at 
the Archbishop of St. Andrews, his book called " Ra- 
vaillac Redivivus," written with the unjust purpose 
of attaching to the religious sect to which the wiz- 
ard and assassin belonged the charge of having fos- 
tered and encouraged the crimes they committed or 
attempted. 

It is certain that no story of witchcraft or necro- 
mancy, so many of which occurred near and in 
Edinburgh, made such a lasting impression on the 
public mind, as that of Major Weir. The remains of 
the house in which he and his sister lived are still 
shown at the head of the Westbow, which as our 
readers may perceive from looking at the frontis- 
piece, has a gloomy aspect, well suited for a necro- 
mancer. It was at different times a brazier's shop, 
and a magazine for lint, and in my younger days 
was employed for the latter use ; but no family would 
inhabit the haunted walls as a residence ; and bold 
was the urchin from the High-School who dared ap- 
proach the gloomy ruin, at the risk of seeing the 
Major's enchanted staff parading through the old 
apartments, or hearing the hum of the necromantic 
wheel, which procured for his sister such a character 
as a spinner. At the time I am writing, this last 
fortress of superstitious renown is in the course of 
being destroyed, in order to the modem improve- 
Aa2 



282 LETTERS ON 

ments now carrying on in a quarter long thought 
unimprovable. 

As knowledge and learning began to increase, the 
gentlemen and clergy of Scotland became ashamed 
of the credulity of their ancestors, and witch trials, 
although not discontinued, more seldom disgrace our 
records of Criminal Jurisprudence. 
f Sir John Clerk, a scholar and an antiquary, the 
grandfather of the late celebrated John Clerk of El- 
din, had the honour to be among the first to decline 
acting as a commissioner on the trial ci a witch, to 
which he was appointed so early as 1678,* alleging, 
dryly, that he did not feel himself warlock (that is, 
conjuror) sufficient to be a judge upon such an in- 
quisition. Allan Ramsay, his friend, and who must 
be supposed to speak the sense of his many respect- 
able patrons, had delivered his opinion on the sub- 
ject in the " Gentle Shepherd," where Mause's ima- 
ginary witchcraft constitutes the machinery of the 
poem. 

Yet these dawnings of sense and humanity were 
obscured by the clouds of the ancient superstition on 
more than one distinguished occasion. In 1676, Sir 
George Maxwell of Pollock, apparently a man of 
melancholic and valetudinary habits, believed him- 
self bewitched to death by six witches, one man and 
five women, who were leagued for the purpose of 
tormenting a clay image in his likeness. The chief 
evidence on the subject was a vagabond girl, pre- 
tending to be deaf and dumb. But as her imposture 
was afterward discovered, and herself punished, it 
is reasonably to be concluded that she had herself 
formed the picture or image of Sir George, and had 
hid it, where it was afterward found, in consequence 
of her own information. In the mean time, five of 
the accused were executed; and the sixth only es- 
caped on account of extreme youth. 

*See FountainhalTs Decisions, voL i. p. 15. 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 283 

A still more remarkable case occurred at Paisley, 
in 1697, where a young girl, about eleven years of 
age, daughter of John Shaw of Bargarran, was the 
principal evidence. This unlucky damsel, beginning 
her practices out of a quarrel with a maid-servant, 
continued to imitate a case of possession so accu- 
rately, that no less than twenty persons were con- 
demned upon her evidence, of whom five were exe- 
cuted, besides one John Reed, who hanged himself 
in prison, or, as was charitably said, was strangled by 
the Devil in person, lest he should make disclosures 
to the detriment of the service. But even those who 
believed in witchcraft were now beginning to open 
their eyes to the dangers in the present mode of 
prosecution. " I own," says the Rev. Mr. Bell, in 
his MS. Treatise on Witchcraft, "there has been 
much harm done to worthy and innocent persons in 
the common way of finding out witches, and in the 
means made use of for promoting the discovery of 
such wretches, and bringing them to justice ; so that 
oftentimes old age, poverty, features, and ill fame, 
with such like grounds not worthy to be represented 
to a magistrate, have yet moved many to suspect and 
defame their neighbours, to the unspeakable preju- 
dice of Christian charity; a late instance whereof 
we had in the west, in the business of the sorceries 
exercised upon the Laird of Bargarran's daughter, 
anno 1697, a time when persons of more goodness 
and esteem than most of their calumniators were 
defamed for witches, and which was occasioned 
mostly by the forwardness and absurd credulity of 
diverse otherwise worthy ministers of the gospel, 
and some topping professors in and about the city 
of Glasgow."* 

Those who doubted of the sense of the law, or 
reasonableness of the practice, in such cases, began 

* Law's Memorialls, edited by C. K. Sharpe, Esq., Prefatory Notice, 
p. 93. 



284 LETTERS ON 

to take courage, and state their objections boldly. In 
the year 1704, a frightful instance of popular bigotry 
occurred at Pittenweem. A strolling vagabond, who 
affected fits, laid an accusation of witchcraft against 
two women, who were accordingly seized on, and 
imprisoned with the usual severities. One of the 
unhappy creatures, Janet Cornfoot by name, escaped 
from prison, but was unhappily caught, and brought 
back to Pittenweem, where she fell into the hands of 
a ferocious mob, consisting of rude seamen and 
fishers. The magistrates made no attempts for her 
rescue, and the crowd exercised their brutal pleasure 
on the poor old woman, pelted her with stones, 
swung her suspended on a rope between a ship and 
the shore, and finally ended her miserable existence 
by throwing a door over her as she lay exhausted on 
the beach, and heaping stones upon it till she was 
pressed to death. As even the existing laws against 
witchcraft were transgresssed by this brutal riot, a 
warm attack was made upon the magistrates and 
ministers of the town, by those who were shocked at 
a tragedy of such a horrible cast. There were an- 
swers published, in which the parties assailed were 
zealously defended. The superior authorities were 
expected to take up the affair, but it so happened, 
during the general distraction of the country con- 
cerning the Union, that the murder went without the 
investigation which a crime so horrid demanded. 
Still, however, it was something gained that the 
cruelty was exposed to the public. The voice of 
general opinion was now appealed to, and, in the 
long run, the sentiments which it ad orates are com- 
monly those of good sense and humanity. 

The officers in the higher branches of the law 
dared now assert their official authority, and reserve 
for their own decision cases of supposed witchcraft, 
which the fear of public clamour had induced them 
formerly to leave in the hands of inferior judges, 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 285 

operated upon by all the prejudices of the country 
and the populace. 

In 1718, the celebrated lawyer, Robert Dundas, of 
Arniston, then King's Advocate, wrote a severe letter 
of censure to the Sheriff-depute of Caithness, in the 
first place, as having neglected to communicate 
officially certain precognitions which he had led re- 
specting some recent practices of witchcraft in his 
county. The Advocate reminded this local judge, 
that the duty of inferior magistrates, in such cases, 
was to advise with the King's Counsel, first, whether 
they should be made subject of a trial or not ; and, 
if so, before what court, and in what manner, it 
should take place. He also called the magistrate's 
attention to a report, that he, the SherhT-depute, in- 
tended to judge in the case himself; " a thing of too 
great difficulty to be tried without very deliberate ad- 
vice, and beyond the jurisdiction of an inferior court." 
The Sheriff-depute sends, with his apology, the pre- 
cognition* of the affair, which is one of the most non- 
sensical in this nonsensical department of the law. 
A certain carpenter, named William Montgomery, 
was so infested with cats, which, as his servant-maid 
reported, " spoke among themselves," that he fell in 
a rage upon a party of these animals which had 
assembled in his house at irregular hours, and be- 
tween his Highland arms of knife, dirk, and broad- 
sword, and his professional weapon of an axe, he 
made such a dispersion that they were quiet for the 
night. In consequence of his blows, two witches 
were said to have died. The case of a third, named 
Nin-Gilbert, was still more remarkable. Her leg 
being broken, the injured limb withered, pined, and 
finally fell off; on which the hag was enclosed in 
prison, where she also died : and the question which 

* The precognition is the record of the preliminary evidence on 
which the public officers charged, in Scotland, with duties intrusted 
to a grand jury in England, incur the responsibility of sending an 
accused person to trial. 



286 LETTERS ON 

remained was, whether any process should be directed 
against persons whom, in her compelled confession, 
she had as usual, informed against. The Lord 
Advocate, as may be supposed, quashed all farther 
procedure. 

In 1720, an unlucky boy, the third son of James, 
Lord Torpichen, took it into his head, under instruc- 
tions, it is said, from a knavish governor, to play the 
possessed and bewitched person, laying the cause of 
his distress on certain old witches in Calder, near to 
which village his father had his mansion. The women 
were imprisoned, and one or two of them died ; but 
the crown counsel would not proceed to trial. The 
noble family also began to see through the cheat. 
The boy was sent to sea, and though he is said at one 
time to have been disposed to try his fits while on 
board, when the discipline of the navy proved too 
severe for his cunning, in process of time he became 
a good sailor, assisted gallantly in defence of the ves- 
sel against the pirates of Angria, and finally was 
drowned in a storm. 

In the year 1722, a Sheriff-depute of Sutherland, 
Captain David Ross of Littledean, took it upon him, 
in flagrant violation of the then established rules of 
jurisdiction, to pronounce the last sentence of death 
for witchcraft which was ever passed in Scotland. 
The victim was an insane old woman belonging to 
the parish of Loth, who had so little idea of her situ- 
ation as to rejoice at the sight of the fire which was 
destined to consume her. She had a daughter lame 
both of hands and feet, a circumstance attributed to 
the witch's having been used to transform her into a 
pony, and get her shod by the Devil. It does not 
appear that any punishment was inflicted for this 
cruel abuse of the law on the person of a creature so 
helpless ; but the son of the lame daughter, he him- 
self distinguished by the same misfortune, was living 
so lately as to receive the charity of the present 
Marchioness of Stafford, Countess of Sutherland in 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 287 

her own right, to whom the poor of her extensive 
country are as well known as those of the higher 
order. 

Since this deplorable action, there has been no 
judicial interference in Scotland on account of 
witchcraft, unless to prevent explosions of popular 
enmity against people suspected of such a crime, of 
which some instances could be produced. The re- 
mains of the superstition sometimes occur; there 
can be no doubt that the vulgar are still addicted to 
the custom of scoring above the breath* (as it is 
termed), and other counter-spells, evincing that the 
belief in witchcraft is only asleep, and might in re- 
mote corners be awakened to deeds of blood. An 
instance or two may be quoted, chiefly as facts 
known to the author himself. 

In a remote part of the Highlands, an ignorant and 
malignant woman seems really to have meditated 
the destruction of her neighbour's property, by 
placing in a cowhouse, or byre, as we call it, a pot 
of baked clay, containing locks of hair, parings of 
nails, and other trumpery. This precious spell was 
discovered, the design conjectured, and the witch 
would have been torn to pieces, had not a high-spi- 
rited and excellent lady in the neighbourhood ga- 
thered some of her people (though these were not 
very fond of the service), and by main force taken 
the unfortunate creature out of the hands of the 
populace. The formidable spell is now in my pos- 
session. 

About two years since, as they were taking down 
the walls of a building formerly used as a feeding- 
house for cattle, in the town of Dalkeith, there was 
found below the threshold-stone the withered heart 
of some animal, stuck full of many scores of pins ; 
— a counter-charm, according to tradition, against 

* Drawing blood, that is, by two cuts in the form of a cross on the 
witch's forehead, confided in all throughout Scotland as the most pow- 
casful counter charm. 



288 LETTERS ON 

the operations of witchcraft on the cattle which are 
kept within. Among the almost innumerable droves 
of hullocks which come down every year from the 
Highlands for the south, there is scarce one but has 
a curious knot upon his tail, which is also a precau- 
tion, lest an evil eye, or an evil spell, may do the 
animal harm. 

The last Scottish story with which I will trouble 
you, happened in or shortly after the year 1800, and 
the whole circumstances are well known to me. 
The dearth of the years in the end of the eighteenth, 
and beginning of this century, was inconvenient to 
all, but distressing to the poor. A solitary old wo- 
man, in a wild and lonely district, subsisted chiefly 
by rearing chickens, an operation requiring so much 
care and attention, that the gentry, and even the 
farmers' wives, often find it better to buy poultry at 
a certain age, than to undertake the trouble of bring- 
ing them up. As the old woman, in the present in- 
stance, fought her way through life better than her 
neighbours, envy stigmatized her as having some un- 
lawful mode of increasing the gains of her little 
trade, and apparently she did not take much alarm 
at the accusation. But she felt, like others, the 
dearth of the years alluded to, and chiefly because 
the farmers were unwilling to sell grain in the 
very moderate quantities which she was able to pur- 
chase, and without which, her little stock of poultry 
must have been inevitably starved. In distress on 
this account, the dame went to a neighbouring far- 
mer, a very good-natured, sensible, honest man, and 
requested him, as a favour, to sell her a peck of oats 
at any price. " Good neighbour," he said, " I am 
sorry to be obliged to refuse you, but my corn is 
measured out for Dalkeith market; my carts are 
loaded to set out, and to open these sacks again, and 
for so small a quantity, would cast my accounts 
loose, and create much trouble and disadvantage ; I 
dare say you will get all you want at such a place, or 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 289 

such a place." On receiving this answer, the old 
woman's temper gave way. She scolded the wealthy 
farmer, and wished evil to his property, which was 
just setting off for the market. They parted, after 
some angry language on both sides ; and sure enough, 
as the carts crossed the ford of the river beneath the 
farm-house, off came the wheel from one of them, 
and five or six sacks of corn were damaged by the 
water. The good farmer hardly knew what to think 
of this; there were the two circumstances deemed 
of old essential and sufficient to the crime of witch- 
craft — Damnum minatum,et malum secutum. — Scarce 
knowing what to believe, he hastened to consult the 
Sheriff of the county, as a friend rather than a ma- 
gistrate, upon a case so extraordinary. The official 
person showed him that the laws against witchcraft 
were abrogated, and had little difficulty to bring him 
to regard the matter in its true light of an accident. 
It is strange, but true, that the accused herself 
was not to be reconciled to the sheriff's doctrine so 
easily. He reminded her, that if she used her 
tongue with so much license, she must expose her- 
self to suspicions, and that should coincidences hap- 
pen to irritate her neighbours, she might suffer harm 
at a time when there was no one to protect her. He 
therefore requested her to be more cautious in her 
language for her own sake, professing, at the same 
time, his belief that her words and intentions were 
perfectly harmless, and that he had no apprehension 
of being hurt by her, let her wish her worst to him. 
She was rather more angry than pleased at the well- 
meaning sheriff's skepticism. " 1 would be laith to 
wish ony ill either to you or yours, sir," she said ; 
" for 1 kenna how it is, but something aye comes 
after my words when I am ill-guided, and speak 
ower fast." In short, she was obstinate in claiming 
an influence over the destiny of others by words and 
wishes, which might have in other times conveyed 
her to the stake ; for which her expressions, their 
Bb 



290 LETTERS ON 

consequences, and her disposition to insist upon 
their efficacy, would certainly of old have made her 
a fit victim. At present, the story is scarcely worth 
mentioning, but as it contains materials resembling 
those out of which many tragic incidents have 
arisen. 

So low, in short, is now the belief in witchcraft, 
that, perhaps it is only received by those half-crazy 
individuals who feel a species of consequence de- 
rived from accidental coincidences, which, were they 
received by the community in general, would go 
near, as on former occasions, to cost the lives of 
those who make their boast of them. At least one 
hypochondriac patient is known to the author, who 
believes himself the victim of a gang of witches, 
and ascribes his illness to their charms, so that he 
wants nothing but an indulgent judge to awake 
again the old ideas of sorcery. 



•/ <> 



LETTER X. 

Other mystic Arts independent of Witchcraft— Astrology— Its Influence 
during the 16th and 17th Centuries— Base Ignorance of those who 
practised it— Lilly's History of his Life and Times—Astrologer's So- 
ciety— Dr. Lamb — Dr. Porman— Establishment of the Royal Society 
—•Partridge — Connexion of Astrologers with elementary Spirits — Dr. 
Dun — Irish Superstition of the Banshie — Similar Superstition in the 
Highlands— Brownie — Ghosts — Belief of ancient Philosophers on that 
Subject— Inquiry into the Respect due to such Tales in modern Times 
— Evidence of a Ghost against a Murderer— Ghost of Sir George Vil- 
liers— Story of Earl St. Vincent— of a British General Officer — of an 
Apparition in France— of the second Lord Lyttelton — of Bill Jones — 
of Jarvis Matcham— Trial of two Highlanders for the Murder of Ser- 
geant Davis, discovered by a Ghost— Disturbances at Woodstock, 
Anno 1649— Imposture called the Stockwell Ghost— Similar Case in 
Scotland — Ghost appearing to an Exciseman — Story of a distnrbed 
House discovered by the Firmness of the Proprietor— Apparition at 
Plymouth— A Club of Philosophers— Ghost Adventure of a Farmer 
— Trick upon a veteran Soldier — Ghost Stories recommended by the 
Skill of the Authors who compose them— Mrs. Veal's Ghost— Dun- 



\ 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 291 

ton's Apparition Evidence — Effect of appropriate Scenery to encou- 
rage a Tendency to Superstition — Differs at distant Periods of Life — 
Night at Glammis Castle about 1791— Visit to Dunvegan in 1814. 

While the vulgar endeavoured to obtain a glance 
into the darkness of futurity by consulting the witch 
or fortune-teller, the great were supposed to have a 
royal path of their own, commanding a view from a 
loftier quarter of the same terra incognita. This was 
represented as accessible by several routes. Physi- 
ognomy, Chiromancy, and other fantastic arts of 
prediction, afforded each its mystical assistance and 
guidance. But the road most flattering to human 
vanity, while it was at the same time most seductive 
to human credulity, was that of Astrology, the queen 
of mystic sciences, who flattered those who confided 
in her, that the planets and stars in their spheres figure 
forth and influence the fate of the creatures of mor- 
tality, and that a sage acquainted with her lore could 
predict, with some approach to certainty, the events 
of any man's career, his chance of success in life or 
in marriage, his advance in favour of the great, or 
answer any other horary questions, as they were 
termed, which he might be anxious to propound, pro- 
vided always he could supply the exact moment of 
his birth. This, in the sixteenth, and greater part 
of the seventeenth centuries, was all that was ne- 
cessary to enable the astrologer to erect a scheme 
of the position of the heavenly bodies, which should 
disclose the life of the interrogator, or Native, as he 
was called, with all its changes, past, present, and to 
come. 

Imagination was dazzled by a prospect so splen- 
did ; and we find that, in the sixteenth century, the 
cultivation of this fantastic science was the serious 
object of men whose understandings and acquire- 
ments admit of no question. Bacon himself allowed 
the truth which might be found in a well-regulated 
astrology, making thus a distinction between the art 
as commonly practised, and the manner in which it 



292 LETTERS ON 

might, as he conceived, be made a proper use of. But 
a grave or sober use of this science, if even Bacon 
could have taught such moderation, would not have 
suited the temper of those who, inflamed by hopes 
of temporal aggrandizement, pretended to understand 
and explain to others the language of the stars. 
Almost all the other paths of mystic knowledge led 
to poverty ; even the alchymist, though talking loud 
and high of the endless treasures his art was to pro- 
duce, lived from day to day, and from year to year, 
upon hopes as unsubstantial as the smoke of his fur- 
nace. But the pursuits of the astrologer were such 
as called for instant remuneration. He became rich 
by the eager hopes and fond credulity of those who 
consulted him, and that artist lived by duping others, 
instead of starving, like others, by duping himself. 
The wisest men have been cheated by the idea that 
some supernatural influence upheld and guided them ; 
and from the time of Wallenstein to that of Buona- 
parte, ambition and success have placed confidence 
in the species of fatalism inspired by a belief of the 
influence of their own star. Such being the case, the 
science was little pursued by those who, faithful in 
their remarks and reports, must soon have discovered 
its delusive vanity through the splendour of its pro- 
fessions ; and the place of such calm and disinte- 
rested pursuers of truth was occupied by a set of 
men, sometimes ingenious, always forward and assu- 
ming, whose knowledge was imposition, whose re- 
sponses were, like the oracles of yore, grounded on 
the desire of deceit, and who, if sometimes they were 
elevated into rank and fortune, were more frequently 
found classed with rogues and vagabonds. This was 
the more apt to be the case, that a sufficient stock of 
impudence, and some knowledge by rote of the terms 
of art, were all the store of information necessary 
for establishing a conjuror. The natural conse- 
quence of the degraded character of the professors, 
was the degradation of the art itself. Lilly, who 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 293 

wrote the History of his own Life and Times, notices 
in that curious volume the most distinguished per- 
sons of his day, who made pretensions to astrology, 
and almost without exception describes them as pro- 
fligate, worthless, sharking cheats, abandoned to vice, 
and imposing, by the grossest frauds, upon the silly 
fools who consulted them. From what we learn of 
his own history, Lilly himself, a low-born, ignorant 
man, with some gloomy shades of fanaticism in his 
temperament, was sufficiently fitted to dupe others, 
and perhaps cheated himself, merely by perusing, at 
an advanced period of life, some of the astrological 
tracts devised by men of less cunning, though per- 
haps more pretence to science, than he himself might 
boast. Yet the public still continued to swallow these 
gross impositions, though coming from such unwor- 
thy authority. The astrologers embraced different 
sides of the Civil War, and the king on one side, 
with the Parliamentary leaders on the other, were 
both equally curious to know, and eager to believe, 
what Lilly, Wharton, or Gadbury had discovered 
from the heavens, touching the fortune of the strife. 
Lilly was a prudent person, contriving with some 
address to shift the sails of his prophetic bark, so as 
to suit the current of the time, and the gale of for- 
tune. No person could better discover from various 
omens the course of Charles's misfortunes, so soon 
as they had come to pass. In the time of the Com- 
monwealth, he foresaw the perpetual destruction of 
the monarchy, and in 1660, this did not prevent his 
foreseeing the restoration of King Charles II. He 
maintained some credit even among the better 
classes, for Aubrey and Ashmole both called them- 
selves his friends, being persons extremely credulous 
doubtless respecting the mystic arts. Once a-year, 
too, the astrologers had a public dinner or feast, where 
the knaves were patronized by the company of such 
fools as claimed the title of Philomaths ; that is, 
lovers of the mathematics, by which name were still 
Bb2 



294 LETTERS ON 

distinguished those who encouraged the pursuit of 
mystical prescience, the most opposite possible to 
exact science. Elias Ashmole, the " most honourable 
Esquire" to whom Lilly's Life is dedicated, seldom 
failed to attend ; nay, several men of sense and know- 
ledge honoured this rendezvous. Congreve's picture 
of a man like Foresight, the dupe of Astrology and 
its sister arts, was then common in society. But 
the astrologers of the 17th century did not confine 
themselves to the stars. There was no province 
of fraud which they did not practice ; they were 
scandalous as panders, and as quacks sold potions for 
the most unworthy purposes. For such reasons the 
common people detested the astrologers of the great, 
as cordially as they did the more vulgar witches of 
their own sphere. 

Dr. Lamb, patronized by the Duke of Bucking- 
ham, who, like other overgrown favourites, was in- 
clined to cherish astrology, was, in 1640, pulled to 
pieces in the city of London by the enraged popu- 
lace, and his maid-servant, thirteen years after- 
ward, hanged as a witch at Salisbury. In the vil- 
lanous transaction of the poisoning of Sir Thomas 
Overbury, in King James's time, much mention was 
made of the art and skill of Dr. Forman, another 
professor of the same sort with Lamb, who was con- 
sulted by the Countess of Essex on the best mode 
of conducting her guilty intrigue with the Earl of 
Somerset. He was dead before the affair broke out, 
which might otherwise have cost him the gibbet, as 
it did all others concerned, with the exception only 
of the principal parties, the atrocious authors of the 
crime. When the cause was tried, some little pup- 
pets were produced in court, which were viewed by 
one party with horror, as representing the most hor- 
rid spells. It was even said that the Devil was 
about to pull down the court-house on their being 
discovered. Others of the audience only saw 
in them the baby figures on which dress-makers 



0EMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 295 

then, as now, were accustomed to expose new 
fashions. 

The erection of the Royal Society, dedicated to 
far different purposes than the pursuits of astrology, 
had a natural operation in bringing the latter into 
discredit ; and although the credulity of the ignorant 
and uninformed continued to support some pre- 
tenders to that science, the name of Philomath 
assumed by these persons and their clients began 
to sink under ridicule and contempt. When Sir 
Richard Steele set up the paper called the Guardian, 
he chose, under the title of Nestor Ironside, to assume 
the character of an astrologer, and issued predic- 
tions accordingly, one of which, announcing the 
death of a person called Partridge, once a shoe- 
maker, but at the time the conductor of an Astro- 
logical Almanac, led to a controversy, which was 
supported with great humour by Swift and other 
wags. I believe you will find that this, with Swift's 
Elegy on the same person, is one of the last, occa- 
sions in which astrology has afforded even a jest to 
the good people of England. 

This dishonoured science has some right to be 
mentioned in a treatise ^ on Demonology, because 
the earlier astrologers, though denying the use of all 
necromancy, that is, unlawful or black magic, pre- 
tended always to a correspondence with the various 
spirits of the elements, on the principles of the Rosi- 
crucian philosophy. They affirmed they could bind 
to their service, and imprison in a ring, a mirror, or 
a stone, some fairy, sylph, or salamander, and com- 
pel it to appear when called, and render answers to 
such questions as the viewer should propose. It is 
remarkable that the sage himself did not pretend to 
see the spirit ; but the task of viewer, or reader, was 
intrusted to a third party, a boy or girl usually un- 
der the years of puberty. Dr. Dee, an excellent 
mathematician, had a stone of this kind, and is said 
to have been imposed upon concerning the spirits 



296 LETTERS ON 

attached to it, their actions and answers, by the re- 
port of one Kelly, who acted as his viewer. The 
unfortunate Dee was ruined by his associates both 
in fortune and reputation. His show-stone, or mir- 
ror, is still preserved, among other curiosities, in the 
British Museum. Some superstition of the same 
kind was introduced by the celebrated Count Cagli- 
ostro, during the course of the intrigue respecting 
the diamond necklace, in which the late Marie An- 
toinette was so unfortunately implicated. 

Dismissing this general class of impostors, who 
are now seldom heard of, we come now briefly to 
mention some leading superstitions, once, perhaps, 
common to all the countries of Europe, but now re- 
stricted to those which continue to be inhabited by 
an undisturbed and native race. Of these, one of 
the most beautiful is the Irish fiction, which assigns 
to certain families of ancient descent and distin- 
guished rank the privilege of a banshie, as she is 
called, or household fairy, whose office it is to appear, 
seemingly mourning while she announces the ap- 
proaching death of some one of the destined race. 
The subject h?s been so lately and beautifully inves- 
tigated and illustrated by Mr. Crofton Croker and 
others, that I may dispense with being very particu- 
lar regarding it. If I am rightly informed, the dis- 
tinction of a banshie is only allowed to families of 
the pure Milesian stock, and is never ascribed to any 
descendant of the proudest Norman or boldest Saxon 
who followed the banner of Earl Strongbow, much 
less to adventurers of later date who have obtained 
settlements in the Green Isle. 

Several families of the Highlands of Scotland an- 
ciently laid claim to the distinction of an attendant 
spirit, who performed the office of the Irish banshie. 
Among them, however, the functions of this attend- 
ant genius, whose form and appearance differed in 
different cases, were not limited to announcing the 
dissolution of those whose days were numbered. 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 297 

The Highlanders contrived to exact from them other 
points of service, sometimes as warding off dangers 
of battle ; at others, as guarding and protecting the 
infant heir through the dangers of childhood; and 
sometimes as condescending to interfere even in the 
sports of the chieftain, and point out the fittest move 
to be nrade at chess, or the best card to be played at 
any other game. Among those spirits who have 
deigned to vouch their existence by appearance of 
late years, is that of an ancestor of the family of 
MacLean of Lochbuy. Before the death of any of 
his race, the phantom-chief gallops along the sea- 
beach, near to the castle, announcing the event by 
cries and lamentations. The spectre is said to have 
rode his rounds and uttered his death-cries within 
these few years, in consequence of which, the family 
and clan, though much shocked, were in no way 
surprised, to hear, by next accounts, that their gal- 
lant chief was dead at Lisbon, where he served 
under Lord Wellington. 

Of a meaner origin and occupation was the Scot- 
tish Brownie — already mentioned, as somewhat re- 
sembling Robin Goodfellow in the frolicsome days 
of Old England. This spirit was easily banished, 
or, as it was styled, hired away, by the offer of 
clothes or food ; but many of the simple inhabitants 
could little see the prudence of parting with such a 
useful domestic drudge,who served faithfully, without 
fee and reward, food or raiment. Neither was it at 
all times safe to reject Brownie's assistance. Thus, 
we are informed by Brand, that a young man in the 
Orkneys " used to brew, and sometimes read upon 
his Bible ; to whom an old woman in the house said, 
that Brownie was displeased with that book he read 
upon, which, if he continued to do, they would get 
no more service of Brownie ; but he being better in- 
structed from that book, which was Brownie's eye- 
sore, and the object of his wrath, when he brewed, 
would not suffer any sacrifice to be given to Brownie ; 



298 LETTERS ON 

whereupon the first and second brewings were 
spoiled, and for no use ; for though the wort wrought 
well, yet in a little time it left off working, and grew 
cold ; but of the third broust, or brewing, he had ale 
very good, though he would not give any sacrifice 
to Brownie, with whom afterward they were no 
more troubled." Another story of the same kind 
is told of a lady in Uist, who refused, on religious 
grounds, the usual sacrifice to this domestic spirit. 
The first and second brewings failed, but the third 
succeeded; and thus, when Brownie lost the per- 
quisite to which he had been so long accustomed, 
he abandoned the inhospitable house, where his ser- 
vices had so long been faithfully rendered. The 
last place in the south of Scotland supposed to have 
been honoured, or benefited, by the residence of a 
Brownie, w r as Bodsbeck, in Moffatdale, which has 
been the subject of an entertaining tale by Mr. 
James Hogg, the self-instructed genius of Ettrick 
Forest. 

These particular superstitions, however, are too 
limited, and too much obliterated from recollection, 
to call for special discussion. The general faith in 
fairies has already undergone our consideration ; but 
something remains to be said upon another species 
of superstition, so general, that it may be called 
proper to mankind in every climate; so deeply 
rooted also in human belief, that it is found to sur- 
vive in states of society during which all other fic- 
tions of the same order are entirely dismissed from 
influence. Mr. Crabbe, with his usual felicity, has 
called the belief in ghosts " the last lingering fiction 
of the brain." 

Nothing appears more simple at the first view of 
the subject, than that human memory should recall 
and bring back to the eye of the imagination, in per- 
fect similitude, even the very form and features of a 
person with whom we have been long conversant, or 
which have been imprinted in our minds with indeli- 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 299 

ble strength, by some striking circumstances touch- 
ing our meeting in life. The son does not easily 
forget the aspect of an affectionate father ; and, for 
reasons opposite, but equally powerful, the counte- 
nance of a murdered person is engraved upon the re- 
collection of his slayer. A thousand additional cir- 
cumstances, far too obvious to require recapitulation, 
render the supposed apparition of the dead the most 
ordinary spectral phenomenon which is ever believed 
to occur among the living. All that we have for- 
merly said respecting supernatural appearances in 
general, applies with peculiar force to the belief of 
ghosts ; for whether the cause of delusion exists in 
an excited imagination or a disordered organic sys- 
tem, it is in this way that it commonly exhibits itself. 
Hence Lucretius himself, the most absolute of skep- 
tics, considers the existence of ghosts, and their fre- 
quent apparition, as facts so undeniable, that he en- 
deavours to account for them at the expense of as- 
senting to a class of phenomena very irreconcilable 
to his general system. As he will not allow of the 
existence of the human soul, and at the same time 
cannot venture to question the phenomena supposed 
to haunt the repositories of the dead, he is obliged to 
adopt the belief that the body consists of several 
coats like those of an onion, and that the outmost 
and thinnest, being detached by death, continues to 
wander near the place of sepulture, in the exact re- 
semblance of the person while alive. 

We have said there are many ghost stories which 
we do not feel at liberty to challenge as impostures, 
because we are confident that those who relate them 
on tfaeir own authority actually believe what they 
assert, and may have good reason for doing so, 
though there is no real phantom after all. We are 
far, therefore, from averring that such tafes are ne- 
cessarily false. It is easy to suppose the visionary 
has been imposed upon by a lively dream, a waking 
revery, the excitation of a powerful imagination, o* 



300 LETTERS ON 

the misrepresentation of a diseased organ of sight ; 
and, in one or other of these causes, to say nothing 
of a system of deception which may in many in- 
stances be probable, we apprehend a solution will be 
found for all cases of what are called real ghost stories. 
In truth, the evidence with respect to such appari- 
tions is very seldom accurately or distinctly ques- 
tioned. A supernatural tale is, in most cases, re- 
ceived as an agreeable mode of amusing society, and 
he would be rather accounted a sturdy moralist than 
an entertaining companion, who should employ him- 
self in assailing its credibility. It would indeed be 
a solecism in manners, something like that of im- 
peaching the genuine value of the antiquities exhi- 
bited by a good-natured collector, for the gratification 
of his guests. This difficulty will appear greater, 
should a company have the rare good fortune to meet 
the person who himself witnessed the wonders which 
he tells ; a well-bred or prudent man will, under such 
circumstances, abstain from using the rules of cross- 
examination practised in a court of justice ; and if 
in any case he presumes to do so, he is in danger of 
receiving answers, even from the most candid and 
honourable persons, which are rather fitted to sup- 
port the credit of the stoiy which they stand com- 
mitted to maintain, than to the pure service of un- 
adorned truth. The narrator is asked, for example, 
some unimportant question with respect to the appa- 
rition ; he answers it on the hasty suggestion of his 
own imagination, tinged as it is with belief of the 
general fact, and by doing so, often gives a feature 
of minute evidence which was before wanting, and 
this with perfect unconsciousness on his own part. 
It is a rare occurrence, indeed, to find an opportunity 
of dealing with an actual ghost-seer : such instances, 
however, I have certainly myself met with, and that 
in the case of able, wise, candid, and resolute persons, 
of whose veracity I had every reason to be confident. 
But in such instances, shades of mental aberration 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 301 

have afterward occurred, which sufficiently accounted 
for the supposed apparitions, and will incline me 
always to feel alarmed in behalf of the continued 
health of a friend, who should conceive himself to 
have witnessed such a visitation. 

The nearest approximation which can be generally 
made to exact evidence in this case, is the word of 
some individual who has had the story, it may be, 
from the person to whom it has happened, but most 
likely from his family, or some friend of the family. 
Far more commonly, the narrator possesses no better 
means of knowledge than that of dwelling in the 
country where the thing happened, or being well ac- 
quainted with the outside of the mansion in the inside 
of which the ghost appeared. 

In every point, the evidence of such a secondhand 
retailer of the mystic story must fall mider the 
adjudged case in an English court. The judge stop- 
ped a witness who was about to give an account of 
the murder, upon trial, as it was narrated to him by the 
ghost of the murdered person. " Hold, sir," said his 
lordship ; " the ghost is an excellent witness, and his 
evidence the best possible ; but he cannot be heard 
by proxy in this court. Summon him hither, and I'll 
hear him in person ; but your communication is mere 
hearsay, which my office compels me to reject." Yet 
it is upon the credit of one man, who pledges it upon 
that of three or four persons who have told it suc- 
cessively to each other, that we are often expected 
to believe an incident inconsistent with the laws of 
nature, however agreeable to our love of the wonder- 
ful and the horrible. 

In estimating the truth or falsehood of such stories, 
it is evident we can derive no proofs from that period 
of society, when men affirmed boldly, and believed 
stoutly, all the wonders which could be coined or 
fancied. That such stories are believed and told by 
grave historians, only shows that the wisest men can- 
not rise in all tilings above the general ignorance of 
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302 LETTERS ON 

their age. Upon the evidence of such historians, we 
might as well believe the portents of ancient, or the 
miracles of modern, Rome. For example, we read 
in Clarendon, of the apparition of the ghost of Sir 
George Villiers to an ancient dependant. This is, no 
doubt, a story told by a grave author, at a time when 
such stories were believed by all the world; but does 
it follow that our reason must acquiesce in a state- 
ment so positively contradicted by the voice of 
Nature, through all her works'? The miracle of 
raising a dead man was positively refused by our 
Saviour to the Jews, who demanded it as a proof of 
his mission ; because they had already sufficient 
grounds of conviction, and, as they believed them 
not, it was irresistibly argued by the Divine Person 
whom they tempted, that neither would they be- 
lieve if one arose from the dead. Shall we sup- 
pose that a miracle refused for the conversion of 
God's chosen people, was sent on a vain errand, 
to save the life of a profligate spendthrift 1 I lay 
aside, you observe, entirely, the not unreasonable 
supposition that Towers, or whatever was the ghost- 
seer's name, desirous to make an impression upon 
Buckingham, as an old servant of his house, might 
be tempted to give him his advice, of which we are 
not told the import, in the character of his father's 
spirit, and authenticate the tale by the mention of 
some token known to him as a former retainer of 
the family. The Duke was superstitious, and the 
ready dupe of astrologers and soothsayers. The 
manner in which he had provoked the fury of the 
people, must have warned every reflecting person of 
his approaching fate ; and, the age considered, it was 
not unnatural that a faithful friend should take this 
mode of calling his attention to his perilous situation. 
Or, if we suppose that the incident was not a mere 
pretext to obtain access to the Duke's ear, the mes- 
senger may have been imposed upon by an idle 
ream — in a word, numberless conjectures might be 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 303 

formed for accounting for the event in a natural way, 
the most extravagant of which is more probable, 
than that the laws of nature were broken through in 
order to give a vain and fruitless warning to an ambi- 
tious minion. 

It is the same with all those that are called ac- 
credited ghost stories usually told at the fireside. 
They want evidence. It is true, that the general wish 
to believe, rather than power of believing, has given 
some such stories a certain currency in society. I 
may mention, as one of the class of tales I mean, 
that of the late Earl St. Vincent, who watched with 
a friend, it is said, a whole night, in order to detect 
the cause of certain nocturnal disturbances which 
took place in a certain mansion. The house was 
under lease to Mrs. Ricketts, his sister. The result 
of his lordship's vigil is said to have been, that he 
heard the noises, without being able to detect the 
causes, and insisted on his sister giving up the house. 
This is told as a real story, with a thousand different 
circumstances. But who has heard or seen an au- 
thentic account from Earl St. Vincent, or from his 
" companion of the watch," or from his lordship's 
sister 1 And as in any other case, such sure species 
of direct evidence would be necessary to prove the 
facts, it seems unreasonable to believe such a story 
on slighter terms. When the particulars are 
precisely fixed and known, it might be time to in- 
quire whether Lord St. Vincent, amid the other 
eminent qualities of a first-rate seaman, might not 
be in some degree tinged with their tendency to 
superstition ; and still farther, whether, having as- 
certained the existence of disturbances not imme- 
diately or easily detected, his lordship might not 
advise his sister rather to remove, than to remain in 
a house so haunted, though he might believe that 
poachers or smugglers were the worst ghosts by 
whom it was disturbed. 

The story of two highly respectable officers in 



304 LETTERS ON 

the British army, who are supposed to have seen 
the spectre of the brother of one of them in a hut, 
or barrack, in America, is also one of those accre- 
dited ghost tales, which attain a sort of brevet rank 
as true, from the mention of respectable names as 
the parties who witnessed the vision. But we are 
left without a glimpse when, how, and in what tenns, 
this story obtained its currency ; as also by whom, 
and in what manner, it was first circulated; and 
among the numbers by whom it has been quoted, 
although all agree in the general event, scarcely 
two, even of those who pretend to the best informa- 
tion, tell the story in the same way. 

Another such story, in which the name of a lady 
of condition is made use of as having seen an appa- 
rition in a country-seat in France, is so far better 
borne out than those T have mentioned, that I have 
seen a narrative of the circumstances, attested by 
the party principally concerned. That the house was 
disturbed seems to be certain, but the circumstances 
(though very remarkable) did not, in my mind, by any 
means exclude the probability that the disturbance and 
appearances were occasioned by the dexterous ma- 
nagement of some mischievously disposed persons. 

The remarkable circumstance of Thomas, the se- 
cond Lord Lyttelton, prophesying his own death 
within a few minutes, upon the information of an 
apparition, has been always quoted as a true story. 
But of late it has been said and published, that the 
unfortunate nobleman had previously determined to 
take poison, and of course had it in his own power 
to ascertain the execution of the prediction. It was 
no doubt singular that a man, who meditated his exit 
from the world, should have chosen to play such a 
trick on his friends. But it is still more credible 
that a whimsical man should do so wild a thing than 
that a messenger should be sent from the dead, to 
tell a libertine at what precise hour he should expire. 

To this list, other stories of the same class might 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 305 

be added. But it is sufficient to show that such sto- 
ries as these, having gained a certain degree of cur- 
rency in the world, and bearing creditable names on 
their front, walk through society unchallenged, like 
bills through a bank, when they bear respectable in- 
dorsations, although, it may be, the signatures are 
forged after all. There is, indeed, an unwillingness 
very closely to examine such subjects, for the secret 
fund of superstition in every man's bosom, is grati- 
fied by believing them to be true, or at least induces 
him to abstain from challenging them as false. And 
no doubt it must happen that the transpiring of inci- 
dents, in which men have actually seen, or conceived 
'that they saw, apparitions which were invisible to 
others, contributes to the increase of such stories, — 
which do accordingly sometimes meet us in a shape 
of veracity difficult to question. 

The following story was narrated to me by my 
friend Mr. William Clerk, chief clerk to the Jury 
Court, Edinburgh, when he first learned it, now nearly 
thirty years ago, from a passenger in the mail coach. 
With Mr. Clerk's consent, I gave the story at that 
time to poor Mat Lewis, who published it with a 
ghost-ballad which he adjusted on the same theme. 
From the minuteness of the original detail, however, 
the narrative is better calculated for prose than 
verse ; and more especially, as the friend to whom it 
was originally communicated, is one of the most 
accurate, intelligent, and acute persons whom I have 
known in the course of my life, I am willing to pre- 
serve the precise story in this place. 

It was about the eventful year 1800, when the Em- 
peror Paul laid his ill-judged embargo on British 
trade, that my friend, Mr. William Clerk, on a jour- 
ney to London, found himself in company, in the 
mail-coach, with a seafaring man of middle age and 
respectable appearance, who announced himself as 
master of a vessel in the Baltic trade, and a sufferer 
by the embargo. In the course of the desultory 
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306 LETTERS ON 

conversation which takes place on such occasions, 
the seaman observed, in compliance with a common 
superstition, " I wish we may have good luck on our 
journey — there is a magpie." — " And why should that 
be unlucky ]" said my friend. — " I cannot tell you 
that," replied the sailor ; " but all the world agrees 
that one magpie bodes bad luck — two are not so bad, 
but three are the Devil. I never saw three magpies 
but twice, and once I had near lost my vessel, and 
the second I fell from ahorse, and was hurt." This 
conversation led Mr. Clerk to observe, that he sup- 
posed he believed also in ghosts, since he credited 
such auguries. " And if I do," said the sailor, " I 
may have my own reasons for doing so ;" and he 
spoke this in a deep and serious manner, implying 
that he felt deeply what he was saying. On being 
further urged, he confessed that, if he could believe 
his own eyes, there was one ghost at least which he 
had seen repeatedly. He then told his story as I 
now relate it. 

Our mariner had, in his youth, gone mate of a 
slave vessel from Liverpool, of which town he seemed 
to be a native. The captain of the vessel was a man 
of a variable temper, sometimes kind and courteous 
to his men, but subject to fits of humour, dislike, and 
passion, during which he was very violent, tyran- 
nical, and cruel. He took a particular dislike at one 
sailor aboard, an elderly man, called Bill Jones, or 
some such name. He seldom spoke to this person 
without threats and abuse, which the old man, with 
the license which sailor's take in merchant vessels, 
was very apt to return. On one occasion, Bill Jones 
appeared slow in getting out on the yard to hand a 
sail. The captain, according to custom, abused the 
seaman as a lubberly rascal, who got fat by leaving 
his duty to other people. The man made a saucy 
answer, almost amounting to mutiny, on which, in a 
towering passion, the captain ran down to •his cabin, 
and returned with a blunderbuss loaded with slugs, 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 307 

with which he took deliberate aim at the supposed 
mutineer, fired, and mortally wounded him. The 
man was handed down from the yard, and stretched 
on the deck, evidently dying. He fixed his eyes on 
the captain, and said, " Sir, you have done for me, 
but / will never leave you" The captain, in re- 
turn, swore at him for a fat lubber, and said he would 
have him thrown into the slave-kettle, where they 
made food for the negroes, and see how much fat he 
had got. The man died ; his body was actually 
thrown into the slave-kettle, and the narrator ob- 
served, with a naivete which confirmed the extent of 
his own belief in the truth of what he told, " There 
was not much fat about him after all." 

The captain told the crew they must keep abso- 
lute silence on the subject of what had passed ; and 
as the mate was not willing to give an explicit and 
absolute promise, he ordered him to be confined be- 
low. After a day or two, he came to the mate, and 
demanded if he had an intention to deliver him up 
for trial when the vessel got home. The mate, who 
was tired of close confinement in that sultry climate, 
spoke his commander fair, and obtained his liberty. 
When he mingled among the crew once more, he 
found them impressed with the idea, not unnatural 
in their situation, that the ghost of the dead man ap- 
peared among them when they had a spell of duty, 
especially if a sail was to be handed, on which occa- 
sion the spectre was sure to be out upon the yard 
before any of the crew. The narrator had seen this 
apparition himself repeatedly — he believed the cap- 
tain saw it also, but he took no notice of it for some 
time, and the crew, terrified at the violent temper 
of the man, dared not call his attention to it. Thus, 
they held on their course homeward, with great fear 
and anxiety. 

At length, the captain invited the mate, who was 
now in a sort of favour, to go down to the cabin and 
take a glass of grog with him. In this interview, he 



308 LETTERS ON 

assumed a very grave and anxious aspect. " I need 
not tell you, Jack," he said, " what sort of hand we 
have got on board with us. He told me he would 
never leave me, and he has kept his word. You only 
see him now and then, but he is always by my side, 
and never out of my sight. At this very moment I 
see him — I am determined to bear it no longer, and I 
have resolved to leave you." 

The mate replied, that his leaving the vessel while 
out of the sight of any land was impossible. He 
advised, that if the captain apprehended any bad 
consequences from what had happened, he should 
run for the west of France or Ireland, and there go 
ashore, and leave him, the mate, to carry the vessel 
into Liverpool. The captain only shook his head 
gloomily, and reiterated his determination to leave 
the ship. At this moment, the mate was called to 
the deck for some purpose or other, and the instant 
he got up the companion-ladder, he heard a splash 
in the water, and looking over the ship's side, saw 
that the captain had thrown himself into the sea 
from the quarter-gallery, and was running astern at 
the rate of six knots an hour. When just about to 
sink, he seemed to make a last exertion, sprung half 
out of the water, and clasped his hands towards the 

mate, calling, " By , Bill is with me now !" and 

then sunk, to be seen no more. 

After hearing this singular story, Mr. Clerk asked 
some questions about the captain, and whether his 
companion considered him as at all times rational. 
The sailor seemed struck with the question, and an- 
swered, after a moment's delay, that in general he 
conversationed well enough. 

It would have been desirable to have been able 
to ascertain how far this extraordinary tale was 
founded on fact ; but want of time, and other circum- 
stances, prevented Mr. Clerk from learning the names 
and dates, that might, to a certain degree, have veri- 
fied the events. Granting the murder to have taken 



DEMOXOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 309 

place, and the tale to have been truly told, there was 
ng more likely to arise among the ship's com- 
pany than the belief in the apparition ; as the captain 
was a man of a passionate and irritable disposition, 
s nowise improbable that he, the victim of 
remorse, should participate in the horrible visions of 
those less concerned, especially as he was compelled 
to avoid communicating his sentiments with any one 
I and the catastrophe would in such a case be 
but the natural consequence of that superstitious 
remorse which has conducted so many criminals to 
suicide or the gallows. If the fellow-traveller of 
Mr. Clerk be not allowed this degree of credit, he 
must at least be admitted to have displayed a singular 
talent for the composition of the horrible in fiction. 
The tale, properly detailed, might have made the 
fortune of a romancer. 

I cannot forbear giving you, as congenial to this 
story, another instance of a guilt-formed phantom, 
which made considerable noise about twenty years 
ago or more. I am, I think, tolerably correct in the 
details, though I have lost the account of the trial. 
Jarvis Matcham — such, if I am not mistaken, was 
the name of my hero — was pay-sergeant in a regi- 
ment, where he was so highly esteemed as a steady 
and accurate man. that he was permitted opportunity 
to embezzle a considerable part of the money lodged 
in his hands for pay of soldiers, bounty of recruit?. 
then a large sum, and other charges which fell within 
his duty. He was summoned to join his regiment 
from a town where he had been on the recruiting 
sendee, and this perhaps under some shade of sus- 
picion. Matcham perceived discovery was at hand, 
and would have deserted, had it not been for the 
presence of a little drummer lad, who was the only 
one of his party appointed to attend him. In the 
ration of his crime, he resolved to murder the 
poor boy, and avail himself of some balance of 
money to make his escape. He meditated this 



310 LETTERS ON 

wickedness the more readily, that the drummer, he 
thought, had been put as a spy on him. He per- 
petrated his crime, and, changing his dress after the 
deed was done, made a long walk across the country 
to an inn on the Portsmouth road, where he halted, 
and went to bed, desiring to be called when the first 
Portsmouth coach came. The waiter summoned 
him accordingly; but long after remembered, that 
when he shook the guest by the shoulder, his first 
words as he awoke were, " My God ! I did not kill 
him." 

Matcham went to the seaport by the coach, and in- 
stantly entered as an able-bodied landsman or ma- 
rine, I know not which. His sobriety and attention 
to duty gained him the same good opinion of the offi- 
cers in his new service which he had enjoyed in the 
army. He was afloat for several years, and behaved 
remarkably well in some actions. At length, the 
vessel came into Plymouth, was paid off, and some 
of the crew, among whom was Jarvis Matcham, were 
dismissed as too old for service. He and another 
seaman resolved to walk to town, and took the route 
by Salisbury. It was when within two or three 
miles of this celebrated city, that they were over- 
taken by a tempest so sudden, and accompanied 
with such vivid lightning, and thunder so dreadfully 
loud, that the obdurate conscience of the old sinner 
began to be awakened. He expressed more terror 
than seemed natural for one who was familiar with 
the war of elements, and began to look and talk so 
wildly, that his companion became aware that some- 
thing more than usual was the matter. At length, 
Matcham complained to his companion that the 
stones rose from the road and flew after him. He 
desired the man to walk on the other side of the high- 
way, to see if they would follow him when he was 
alone. The sailor complied, and Jarvis Matcham 
complained that the stones still flew after him, and 
did not pursue the other. " But what is worse," he 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 311 

added, coming up to his companion, and whispering, 
with a tone of mystery and fear, " who is that little 
drummer boy, and what business has he to follow us 
so closely ?" — " I can see no one," answered the 
seaman, infected by the superstition of his associate. 
" What ! not see that little boy with the bloody pan- 
taloons !" exclaimed the secret murderer, so much 
to the terror of his comrade, that he conjured him, 
if he had any thing on his mind, to make a clear 
conscience as far as confession could do it. The 
criminal fetched a deep groan, and declared that he 
was unable longer to endure the life which he had 
led for years. He then confessed the murder of the 
drummer, and added, that as a considerable reward 
had been offered, he wished his comrade to deliver 
him up to the magistrates of Salisbury, as he would 
desire a shipmate to profit by his fate, which he was 
now convinced was inevitable. Having overcome 
his friend's objections to this mode of proceeding, 
Jarvis Matcham was surrendered to justice accord- 
ingly, and made a full confession of his guilt. But 
before the trial the love of life returned. The pri- 
soner denied his confession, and pleaded Not Guilty. 
By tliis time, however, full evidence had been pro- 
cured from other quarters. Witnesses appeared from 
his former regiment to prove his identity with the 
murderer and deserter, and the waiter remembered 
the ominous words which he had spoken when he 
awoke him to join the Portsmouth coach. Jarvis 
Matcham was found Guilty, and executed. When 
his last chance of life was over, he returned to his 
confession, and with his dying breath averred, and 
truly, as he thought, the truth of the vision on Salis- 
bury plain. Similar stories might be produced, 
showing plainly that, imder the direction of Heaven, 
the influence of superstitious fear may be the ap- 
pointed means of bringing the criminal to repentance 
for his own sake, and to punishment for the ad- 
vantage of society. 



312 LETTERS ON 

Cases of this kind are numerous, and easily ima- 
gined, so I shall dwell on them no farther ; but rather 
advert to at least an equally abundant class of ghost 
stories, in which the apparition is pleased not to tor- 
ment the actual murderer, but proceeds in a very 
circuitous manner, acquainting some stranger or igno- 
rant old woman with the particulars of his fate, who, 
though perhaps unacquainted with all the parties, is 
directed by the phantom to lay the facts before a ma- 
gistrate. In this respect we must certainly allow 
that ghosts have, as we are informed by the facetious 
Captain Grose, forms and customs peculiar to them- 
selves. 

There would be no edification and little amuse- 
ment in treating of clumsy deceptions of this kind, 
where the grossness of the imposture detects itself. 
But occasionally cases occur like the following, with 
respect to which it is more . difficult, to use James 
Boswell's phrase, " to know what to think." 

Upon the 10th of June, 1754, Duncan Terig, alias 
Clark, and Alexander Baid MacDonald, two High- 
landers, were [tried before the Court of Justiciary, 
Edinburgh, for the murder of Arthur Davis, sergeant 
in Guise's regiment, on the 28th of September, 1749. 
The accident happened not long after the civil war, 
the embers of which were still reeking, so there ex- 
isted too many reasons on account of which an 
English soldier, straggling far from assistance, might 
be privately cut off by the inhabitants of these wilds. 
It appears that Sergeant Davis was amissing for 
years, without any certainty as to his fate. At 
length, an account of the murder appeared from the 
evidence of one Alexander MacPherson (a High- 
lander, speaking no language but Gaelic, and sworn 
by an interpreter), who gave the following extraor- 
dinary account of his cause of knowledge :— He was, 
he said, in bed in his cottage, when an apparition 
came to his bedside, and commanded him to rise 
and follow him out of doors. Believing this visiter 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT, 313 

to be one Farquharson, a neighbour and friend, the 
witness did as he was bid; and when they were 
without the cottage, the appearance told the witness 
he was the ghost of Sergeant Davis, and requested 
him to go and bury his mortal remains, which lay 
concealed in a place he pointed out, in a moor- 
land tract called the Hill of Christie. He desired 
him to take Farquharson with him as an assistant. 
Next day the witness went to the place specified, 
and there found the bones of a human body much 
decayed. The witness did not at that time bury the 
bones so found, in consequence of which negligence 
the sergeant's ghost again appeared to him, upbraid- 
ing him with his breach of promise. On this occa- 
sion the witness asked the ghost who were the mur- 
derers, and received for answer that he had been 
slain by the prisoners at the bar. The witness, after 
this second visitation, called the assistance of Far- 
quharson, and buried the body. 

Farquharson was brought in evidence, to prove 
that the preceding witness, MacPherson, had called 
him to the burial of the bones, and told him the same 
story which he repeated in court. Isabel Mac- 
Hardie, a person who slept in one of the beds which 
run along the wall in an ordinary Highland hut, de- 
clared, that upon the night when MacPherson said 
he saw the ghost, she saw a naked man enter the 
house, and go towards MacPherson's bed. 

Yet, though the supernatural incident was thus 
fortified, and although there were other strong pre- 
sumptions against the prisoners, the story of the ap- 
parition threw an air of ridicule on the whole evi- 
dence for the prosecution. It was followed up by 
the counsel for the prisoners asking, in the cross- 
examination of MacPherson, "What language did 
the ghost speak in?" The witness, who was him- 
Ignorant of English, replied, "As good Gaelic 
as I ever heard in Loehaber." — ik Pretty well fur the 
a English sergeant, 1 lie counsel 

" Dd 



314 LETTERS ON 

The inference was rather smart and plausible than 
sound, for, the apparition of the ghost being admitted, 
we know too little of the other world to judge whe- 
ther all languages may not be alike familiar to those 
who belong to it. It imposed, however, on the jury, 
who found the accused parties Not Guilty; although 
their counsel and solicitor, and most of the court, 
were satisfied of their having committed the murder. 
In this case, the interference of the ghost seems to 
have rather impeded the vengeance which it was 
doubtless the murdered sergeant's desire to obtain. 
Yet there may be various modes of explaining this 
mysterious story, of which the following conjecture 
may pass for one. 

The reader may suppose that MacPherson was 
privy to the fact of the murder, perhaps as an accom- 
plice, or otherwise ; and may also suppose, that from 
motives of remorse for the action, or of enmity to 
those who had committed it, he entertained a wish 
to bring them to justice. But through the whole 
Highlands there is no character more detestable than 
that of an informer, or one who takes what is called 
Tascal-money, or reward for discovery of crimes. 
To have informed against Terig and MacDonald 
might have cost MacPherson his life ; and it is far 
from being impossible, that he had recourse to the 
story of the ghost, knowing well that his supersti- 
tious countrymen would pardon his communicating 
the commission intrusted to^liim by a being from the 
other world, although he might probably have been 
murdered, if his delation of the crime had been sup- 
posed voluntary. This explanation, in exact con- 
formity with the sentiments of the Highlanders on 
such subjects, would reduce the whole story to a 
stroke of address on the part of the witness. 

It is therefore of the last consequence, in consi- 
dering the truth of stories of ghosts and apparitions, 
to consider the possibility of wilful deception, whether 
on the part of those who are agents in the supposed 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 315 

disturbances, or the author of the legend. We shall 
separately notice an instance or two of either kind. 

The most celebrated instance in which human 
agency was used to copy the disturbances imputed 
to supernatural beings, refers to the ancient palace 
of Woodstock, when the Commissioners of the Long 
Parliament came down to dispark what had been 
lately a royal residence. The Commissioners ar- 
rived at Woodstock 13th October, 1649, determined 
to wipe away the memory of all that connected it- 
self with the recollection of monarchy in England. 
But, in the course of their progress, they were en- 
countered by obstacles which apparently came from 
the next world. Their bedchambers were infested 
with visits of a thing resembling a dog, but which 
came and passed as mere earthly dogs cannot do. 
Logs of wood, the remains of a very large tree called 
the King's Oak, which they had splintered into 
billets for burning, were tossed through the house, 
and the chairs displaced and shuffled about. While 
they were in bed, the feet of their couches were 
lifted higher than their heads, and then dropped with 
violence. Trenchers "without a wish" flew at 
their heads, of free will. Thunder and lightning 
came next, which were set down to the same cause. 
Spectres made their appearance, as they thought, in 
different shapes ; and one of the party saw the appa- 
rition of a hoof, which kicked a candlestick and 
lighted candle into the middle of the room, and then 
politely scratched on the red snuff to extinguish it. 
Other and worse tricks were practised on the as- 
tonished Commissioners, who, considering that all 
the fiends of hell were let loose upon them, retreated 
from Woodstock without completing an errand 
which was, in their opinion, impeded by infernal 
powers, though the opposition offered was rather of 
a playful and malicious, than of a dangerous cast. 

The whole matter was, after the Restoration, dis- 
covered to be the trick of one of their own party, who 



316 LETTERS ON 

had attended the Commissioners as a clerk, under 
the name of Giles Sharp. This man, whose real 
name was Joseph Collins of Oxford, called Funny 
Joe, was a concealed loyalist, and well acquainted 
with the old mansion of Woodstock, where he had 
been brought up before the civil war. Being a bold, 
active, spirited man, Joe availed himself of his local 
knowledge of trap-doors and private passages, so as 
to favour the tricks which he played off upon his 
masters by aid of his fellow-domestics. The Com- 
missioners' personal reliance on him made his task 
the more easy, and it was all along remarked, that 
trusty Giles Sharp saw the most extraordinary sights 
and visions among the whole party. The unearthly 
terrors experienced by the Commissioners are de- 
tailed with due gravity by Sinclair, and also, I think, 
by Dr. Plott. But although the detection, or expla- 
nation of the real history of the Woodstock demons, 
has also been published, and I have myself seen it, 
I have at this time forgotten whether it exists in a 
separate collection, or where it is to be looked for. 

Similar disturbances have been often experienced, 
while it was the custom to believe in and dread such 
frolics of the invisible world, and under circum- 
stances which induce us to wonder, both at the 
extreme trouble taken by the agents in these impos- 
tures, and the slight motives from which they have 
been induced to do much wanton mischief. Still 
greater is our modern surprise at the apparently sim- 
ple means by which terror has been excited to so 
general an extent, that even the wisest and most 
prudent have not escaped its contagious influence. 

On the first point, I am afraid there can be no 
better reason assigned than the conscious pride of 
superiority, which induces the human being in all 
cases to enjoy and practise every means of employ- 
ing an influence over his fellow-mortals ; to which 
we may safely add, that general love of tormenting, 
as common to our race, as to that noble mimic of 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 317 

humanity, the monkey. To this is owing the delight 
with which every schoolboy anticipates the effects 
of throwing a stone into a glass shop ; and to this 
we must also ascribe the otherwise unaccountable 
pleasure which individuals have taken in practising 
the tricksy pranks of a goblin, and filling a house- 
hold, or neighbourhood, with anxiety and dismay, 
with little gratification to themselves besides the 
consciousness of dexterity if they remain undisco- 
vered, and with the risk of loss of character, and 
punishment, should the imposture be found out. 

In the year 1772, a train of transactions commenc- 
ing upon Twelfth Day, threw the utmost consterna- 
tion into the village of Stockwell, near London, and 
impressed upon some of its inhabitants the inevitable 
belief that they were produced by invisible agents. 
The plates, dishes, china, and glass-ware, and small 
moveables of every kind, contained in the house of 
Mrs. Golding, an elderly lady, seemed suddenly to 
become animated, shifted their places, flew through 
the room, and were broken to pieces. The parti- 
culars of this commotion were as curious, as the loss 
and damage occasioned in this extraordinary manner 
were alarming and intolerable. Amid this combus- 
tion, a young woman, Mrs. Golding's maid, named 
Anne Robinson, was walking backwards and for- 
wards, nor could she be prevailed on to sit down 
for a moment, excepting while the family were at 
prayers, during which time no disturbance happened. 
This Anne Robinson had been but a few days in the 
old lady's service, and it was remarkable that she 
endured with great composure the extraordinary 
display which others beheld with tenor, and coolly 
advised her mistress not to be alarmed or uneasy, as 
these things could not be helped. This excited an 
idea that she had some reason for being so composed, 
not inconsistent with a degree of connexion with 
what was going forward. The afflicted Mrs. Gold- 
ing, as she might be well termed, considering such a 
Dd2 



318 LETTERS ON 

commotion and demolition among her goods and 
chattels, invited neighbours to stay in her house, but 
they soon became unable to bear the sight of these 
supernatural proceedings, which went so far, that not 
above two cups and saucers remained out of a valu- 
able set of china. She next abandoned her dwelling, 
and took refuge with a neighbour, but, finding his 
moveables were seized with the same sort of St. 
Vitus' s dance, her landlord reluctantly refused to 
shelter any longer a woman who seemed to be per- 
secuted by so strange a subject of vexation. Mrs. 
Golding's suspicions against Anne Robinson now 
gaining ground, she dismissed her maid, and the 
hubbub among her moveables ceased at once and for 
ever. 

This circumstance of itself indicates that Anne 
Robinson was the cause of these extraordinary dis- 
turbances, as has been since more completely ascer- 
tained by a Mr. Brayfield, who persuaded Anne, long 
after the events had happened, to make him her con- 
fidant. There was a love-story connected with the 
case, in which the only magic was the dexterity of 
Anne Robinson, and the simplicity of the spectators. 
She had fixed long horse hairs to some of the 
crockery, and placed wires under others, by which 
she could throw them down without touching them. 
Other things she dexterously threw about, which the 
spectators, who did not watch her motions, imputed 
to invisible agency. At times, w r hen the family 
were absent, she loosened the hold of the strings by 
which the hams, bacon, and similar articles were 
suspended, so that they fell on the slightest motion. 
She employed some simple chemical secrets; and, 
delighted with the success of her pranks, pushed 
them farther than she at first intended. Such 'was 
the solution of the whole mystery, which, known by 
the name of the Stockwell ghost, terrified many well- 
meaning persons, and had been nearly as famous as 
that of Cock-lane, wliieh may be hinted at as another 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 319 

imposture of the same kind. So many and wonder- 
ful are the appearances described, that, when I first 
met with the original publication, I was strongly 
impressed with the belief that the narrative was, like 
some of Swift's advertisements, a jocular experiment 
upon the credulity of the public. But it was cer- 
tainly published bona Jlde, and Mr. Hone, on the 
authority of Mr. Brayfield, has since fully explained 
the wonder.* 

Many such impositions have been detected, and 
many others have been successfully concealed ; but 
to know what has been discovered in many in- 
stances, gives us the assurance of the ruling cause 
in all. I Temember a scene of the kind attempted 
to be got up near Edinburgh, but detected at once 
by a sheriff's officer, a sort of persons whose habits 
of incredulity and suspicious observation render 
them very dangerous spectators on such occasions. 
The late excellent Mr. Walker, minister at Dunottar, 
in the Mearns, gave me a curious account of an im- 
posture of this kind, practised by a young country 
girl, who was surprisingly quick at throwing stones, 
turf, and other missiles, with such dexterity, that it 
was for a long time impossible to ascertain her 
agency in the disturbances of which she was the 
sole cause. 

The belief of the spectators that such scenes of 
disturbance arise from invisible beings, will appear 
less surprising, if we consider the common feats of 
jugglers, or professors of legerdemain, and recollect 
that it is only the frequent exhibition of such powers 
which reconciles us to them as matters of course, 
although they are wonders at which, in our fathers' 
time, men would have cried out either sorcery or 
miracles. The spectator also, who has been him- 
self duped, makes no very respectable appearance 
when convicted of his error; and thence, if. too can- 

* See Hone'6 Every-Day Book, p. G2, 






320 LETTERS ON 

did to add to the evidence of supernatural agency, 
is yet unwilling to stand convicted, by cross-exami- 
nation, of having been imposed on, and uncon- 
sciously becomes disposed rather to colour more 
highly than the truth, than acquiesce in an explana- 
tion resting on his having been too hasty a believer. 
Very often, too, the detection depends upon the 
combination of certain circumstances, which, appre- 
hended, necessarily explain the whole story. 

For example, I once heard a sensible and intelli- 
gent friend in company, express himself convinced 
of the truth of a wonderful story told him by an in- 
telligent and bold man, about an apparition. The 
scene lay in an ancient castle on the coast of Mor- 
ven, or the Isle of Mull, where the ghost-seer 
chanced to be resident. He was given to under- 
stand by the family, when betaking himself to rest, 
that the chamber in which he slept was occasionally 
disquieted by supernatural appearances. Being at 
that time no believer in such stories, he attended 
little to this hint, until the witching hour of night, 
when he was awakened from a dead sleep by the 
pressure of a human hand on his body. He looked 
up at the figure of a tall Highlander in the antique 
and picturesque dress of Iris country, only that his 
brows were bound with a bloody bandage. Struck 
with sudden and extreme fear, he was willing to 
have sprung from bed, but the spectre stood before 
him in the bright moonlight, its one arm extended, 
so as to master him if he attempted to rise; the 
other hand held up in a warning and grave posture, 
as menacing the Lowlander if he should attempt to 
quit his recumbent posture. Thus he lay in mortal 
agony for more than an hour, after which it pleased 
the spectre of ancient days to leave him to more 
sound repose. So singular a story had on its side 
the usual number of votes from the company, till, 
upon cross-examination, it was explained that the 
principal person concerned was an exciseman; after 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 321 

which eclair cissement, the same explanation struck 
all present, viz., that the Highlanders of the mansion 
had chosen to detain the exciseman by the appari- 
tion of an ancient heroic ghost, in order to disguise 
from his vigilance the removal of certain modern 
enough spirits, which his duty might have called 
upon him to seize. Here a single circumstance ex- 
plained the whole ghost story. 

At other times it happens that the meanness and 
trifling nature of a cause not very obvious to obser- 
vation, has occasioned it to be entirely overlooked, 
even on account of that very meanness, since no 
one is willing to acknowledge that he has been 
alarmed by a cause of little consequence, and which 
he would be ashamed of mentioning. An incident 
of this sort happened to a gentleman of birth and 
distinction, who is well known in the political world, 
and was detected by the precision of his observa- 
tion. Shortly after he succeeded to his estate and 
title, there was a rumour among his servants con- 
cerning a strange noise heard in the family-mansion 
at night, the cause of which they had found it im- 
possible to trace. The gentleman resolved to watch 
himself, with a domestic who had grown old in the 
family, and who had begun to murmur strange things 
concerning the knocking having followed so close 
upon the death of his old master. They watched 
until the noise was heard, which they listened to 
with that strange uncertainty attending midnight 
sounds, which prevents the hearers from imme- 
diately tracing them to the spot where they arise, 
while the silence of the night generally occasions 
the imputing to them more than the due importance 
which they would receive, if mingled with the usual 
noises of daylight. At length the gentleman and 
his servant traced the sounds which they had re- 
peatedly heard, to a small store-room, used as a 
place for keeping provisions of various kinds for the 
family, of which the old butler had the key. They. 



322 LETTERS ON 

entered this place, and remained there for some time, 
without hearing the noises which they had traced 
thither ; at length the sound was heard, but much 
lower than it had formerly seemed to be, while acted 
upon at a distance by the imagination of the hearers. 
The cause was immediately discovered. A rat 
caught in an old-fashioned trap had occasioned this 
tumult, by its efforts to escape, in which it was able 
to raise the trap-door of its prison to a certain 
height, but was then obliged to drop it. The noise 
of the fall resounding through the house, had occa- 
sioned the disturbance which, but for the cool inves- 
tigation of the proprietor, might easily have esta- 
blished an accredited ghost story. The circum- 
stance was told me by the gentleman to whom it 
happened. 

There are other occasions in which the ghost story 
is rendered credible by some remarkable combination 
of circumstances very unlikely to have happened, and 
which no one could have supposed, unless some par- 
ticular fortune occasioned a discovery. 

An apparition which took place at Plymouth is well 
known, but it has been differently related ; and having 
some reason to think the following edition correct, it 
is an incident so much to my purpose, that you must 
pardon its insertion. 

A club of persons connected with science and lite- 
rature, w?s formed at the great sea-town we have 
named. During the summer months, the society 
met in a cave by the sea-shore ; during those of 
autumn and winter, they convened within the pre- 
mises of a tavern, but, for the sake of privacy, had 
their meetings in a summer-house situated in the 
garden, at a distance from the main building. Some 
of the members to whom the position of their own 
dwellings rendered this convenient, had a pass key 
to the garden-door, by which they could enter the 
garden and reach the summer-house without the 
publicity or trouble of passing through the open 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 323 

tavern. It was the rule of this club that its mem- 
bers presided alternately. On one occasion, in the 
winter, the president of the evening chanced to be 
very ill ; indeed, was reported to be on his death-bed. 
The club met as usual, and, from a sentiment of re- 
spect, left vacant the chair which ought to have been 
occupied by him, if in his usual health ; for the same 
reason, the conversation turned upon the absent gen- 
tleman's talents, and the loss expected to the society 
by his death. While they were upon this melan- 
choly theme, the door suddenly opened, and the ap- 
pearance of the president entered the room. He 
wore a white wrapper, a nightcap round his brow, 
the appearance of which was that of death itself. 
He stalked into the room with unusual gravity, took 
the vacant place of ceremony, lifted the empty glass 
which stood before him, bowed around, and put it to 
his lips ; then replaced it on the table, and stalked 
out of the room as silent as he had entered it. The 
company remained deeply appalled ; at length, after 
many observations on the strangeness of what they 
had seen, they resolved to despatch two of their 
number as ambassadors, to see how it fared with the 
president, who had thus strangely appeared among 
them. They went, and returned with the frightful 
intelligence, that the friend, after whom they had 
inquired, was that evening deceased. 

The astonished party then resolved that .they 
would remain absolutely silent respecting the won- 
derful sight which they had seen. Their habits were 
too philosophical to permit them to believe that they 
had actually seen the ghost of their deceased bro- 
ther, and at the same time they were too wise men, 
to wish to confirm the superstition of the vulgar, by 
what might seem indubitable evidence of a ghost. 
The affair was therefore kept a strict secret, although* 
as usual, some dubious rumours of the tale found 
their way to the public. Several years afterward^ 
an old woman who had long filled the place of a sick- 



324 LETTERS ON 

nurse, was taken very ill, and on her death-bed was 
attended by a medical member of the philosophical 
club. To him, with many expressions of regret, she 
acknowledged that she had long before attended Mr. 

, naming the president, whose appearance had 

surprised the club so strangely, and that she felt dis- 
tress of conscience on account of the manner in 
which he died. She said, that as his malady was at- 
tended by light-headedness, she had been directed to 
keep a close watch upon him during his illness. 
Unhappily she slept, and during her sleep the patient 
had awaked, and left the apartment. When on her 
own waking, she found the bed empty and the patient 
gone, she forthwith hurried out of the house to seek 
him, and met him in the act of returning. She got 
him, she said, replaced in the bed, but it was only to 
die there. She added, to convince her hearer of the 
truth of what she said, that immediately after the 
poor gentleman expired, a deputation of two mem- 
bers from the club came to inquire after their presi- 
dent's health, and received for answer that he was 
already dead. This confession explained the whole 
matter. The delirious patient had very naturally 
taken the road to the club, from some recollections 
of his duty of the night. In approaching and retiring 
from the apartment, he had used one of the pass-keys 
already mentioned, which made his way shorter. On 
the other hand, the gentlemen sent to inquire after his 
health had reached his lodging by a more circuitous 
road ; and thus there had been time for him to return 
to what proved his death-bed, long before they 
reached his chamber. The philosophical witnesses 
of this strange scene were now as anxious to spread 
the stoiy as they had formerly been to conceal it, 
since it showed in what a remarkable manner men's 
eyes might turn traitors to them, and impress them 
with ideas far different from the truth. 
Another occurrence of the same kind, although 
ly so striking in its circumstances, was yet 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 325 

one which, had it remained unexplained, might have 
passed as an indubitable instance of a supernatural 
apparition. 

A Teviotdale farmer was riding from a fair, at 
which he had indulged himself with John Barley- 
corn, but not to that extent of defying goblins which 
it inspired into the gallant Tarn O'Shanter. He was 
pondering with some anxiety upon the dangers of 
travelling alone on a solitary road, which passed the 
corner of a churchyard, now near at hand, when he 
saw before him, in the moonlight, a pale female 
form standing upon the very wall which surrounded 
the cemetery. The road was very narrow, with no 
opportunity of giving the apparent phantom what 
seamen call a wide birth. It was, however, the only 
path which led to the rider's home, who therefore 
resolved, at all risks, to pass the apparition. He 
accordingly approached, as slowly as possible, the 
spot where the spectre stood, while the figure re- 
mained, now perfectly still and silent, now bran- 
dishing its arms, and gibbering to the moon. When 
the farmer came close to the spot, he dashed in the 
spurs, and set the horse off upon a gallop ; but the 
spectre did not miss its opportunity. As he passed 
the corner where she was perched, she contrived to 
drop behind the horseman, and seize him round the 
waist; a manoeuvre which greatly increased the 
speed of the horse, and the terror of the rider ; for 
the hand of her who sat behind him, when pressed 
upon his, felt as cold as that of a corpse. At his 
own house at length he arrived, and bid the servants 
who came to attend him, " Tak aff the ghaist !" 
They took off accordingly a female in white, and 
the poor farmer himself was conveyed to bed, where 
he lay struggling for weeks with a strong nervous 
fever. The female was found to be a maniac, who 
had been left a widow very suddenly! by an affec- 
tionate husband, and the nature and cause of her 
malady induced her, when she could make her es- 
Ee 



326 LETTERS ON 

cape, to wander to the churchyard, where she some- 
times wildly wept over his grave, and sometimes 
standing on the corner of the churchyard wall, 
looked out, and mistook every stranger on horse- 
back for the husband she had lost. If this woman, 
which was very possible, had dropped from the horse 
unobserved by him whom she had made her invo- 
luntary companion, it would have been very hard to 
have convinced the honest farmer that he had not ac- 
tually performed part of his journey with a ghost 
behind him. 

There is also a large class of stories of this sort, 
where various secrets of chemistry, of acoustics, 
ventriloquism, or other arts, have been either em- 
ployed to dupe the spectators, or have tended to do 
so through mere accident and coincidence. Of these 
it is scarce necessary to quote instances ; but the fol- 
lowing may be told as a tale recounted by a foreign 
nobleman, known to me nearly thirty years ago, 
whose life, lost in the service of his sovereign, 
proved too short for his friends and his native land. 

At a certain old castle on the confines of Hun- 
gary, the lord to whom it belonged had determined 
upon giving an entertainment worthy of his own 
rank, and of the magnificence of the antique man- 
sion which he inhabited. The guests of course 
were numerous, and among them was a veteran of- 
ficer of hussars, remarkable for his bravery. When 
the arrangements for the night were made, this of- 
ficer was informed that there would be difficulty in 
accommodating the company in the castle, large as 
it was, unless some one would take the risk of 
sleeping in a room supposed to be haunted ; and that 
as he was known to be above such prejudices, the 
apartment was, in the first place, proposed for his 
occupation, as the person least likely to suffer a bad 
night's rest from such a cause. The Major thank- 
fully accepted the preference, and having shared the 
festivity of the evening, retired after midnight, 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 327 

having denounced vengeance against any one who 
should presume by any trick to disturb his repose ; 
a threat which his habits would, it was sup- 
posed, render him sufficiently ready to execute. 
Somewhat contrary to the custom in these cases, the 
Major went to bed, having left his candle burning, 
and laid his trusty pistols carefully loaded on the 
table by his bedside. 

He had not slept an hour when he was awakened 
by a solemn strain of music — he looked out. Three 
ladies, fantastically dressed in green, were seen 
in the lower end of the apartment, who sung a so- 
lemn requiem. The Major listened for some time 
with delight ; at length he tired — " Ladies," he said, 
" this is very well, but somewhat monotonous — will 
you be so kind as to change the tune V The ladies 
continued singing; he expostulated, but the music 
was not interrupted. The Major began to grow an- 
gry : "Ladies," he said, " I must consider this as a 
trick for the purpose of terrifying me, and as I re- 
gard it as an impertinence, I shall take a rough mode 
of stopping it." With that he began to handle his 
pistols. The ladies sung on. He then got seriously 
angry — "I will but wait five minutes," he said, 
' and then fire without hesitation." The song was 
uninterrupted — the five minutes were expired—" I 
still give you law, ladies," he said, " while I count 
twenty." This produced as little effect as his for- 
mer threats. He counted one, two, three, accord- 
ingly; but on approaching the end of the number, 
and repeating more than once his determination to 
fire, the last numbers seventeen — eighteen — nine- 
teen, were pronounced with considerable pauses be- 
tween, and an assurance that the pistols were cocked. 
The ladies sung on. As he pronounced the word 
twenty he fired both pistols against the musical dam- 
sels ; — but the ladies sung on ! The Major was over- 
come by the unexpected inefrlcacy of his violence, 
and had an illness which lasted more than three 



328 LETTERS ON 

weeks. The trick put upon him may be shortly 
described by the fact, that the female choristers were 
placed in an adjoining room, and that he only fired at 
their reflection thrown forward into that in which he 
slept by the effect of a concave mirror. 

Other stories of the same kind are numerous and 
well known. The apparition of the Brocken mountain 
after having occasioned great admiration and some 
fear, is now ascertained by philosophers to be a gi- 
gantic reflection, which makes the traveller's shadow, 
represented upon the misty clouds, appear a colossal 
figure of almost immeasurable size. By a similar 
deception, men have been induced, in Westmoreland 
and other mountainous countries, to imagine they 
saw troops of horse and armies marching and coun- 
termarching, which were in fact only the reflection 
of horses pasturing upon an opposite height, or of 
the forms of peaceful travellers. 

A very curious case of this kind was communi- 
cated to me by the son of the lady principally con- 
cerned, and tends to show out of what mean mate- 
rials a venerable apparition may be sometimes 
formed. In youth, this lady resided with her father, 
a man of sense and resolution. Their house was 
situated in the principal street of a town of some size. 
The back part of the house ran at right angles to an 
Anabaptist chapel, divided from it by a small cab- 
bage-garden. The young lady used sometimes to 
indulge the romantic love of solitude, by sitting in 
her own apartment in the evening till twilight, and 
even darkness was approaching. One evening while 
she was thus placed, she was surprised to see a gleamy 
figure, as of some aerial being hovering, as it were, 
against the arched window in the end of the Anabap- 
tist chapel. Its head was surroimded by that halo 
which painters give to the Catholic saints; and, 
while the young lady's attention was fixed on an ob- 
ject so extraordinary, the figure bent gracefully to- 
wards her more than once, as if intimating a sense 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 329 

of her presence, and then disappeared. The seer of 
this striking vision descended to her family, so much 
discomposed as to call her father's attention. He 
obtained an account of the cause of her disturbance, 
and expressed his intention to watch in the apart- 
ment next night. He sat, accordingly, in his daugh- 
ter's chamber, where she also attended him. Twi- 
light came, and nothing appeared ; but as the gray 
light faded into darkness, the same female figure 
was seen hovering on the window ; the same shadowy 
form ; the same pale light around the head ; the same 
inclinations, as the evening before. " What do you 
think of this ?" said the daughter to the astonished 
father. — " Any thing, my dear," said the father, " ra- 
ther than allow that we look upon what is superna- 
tural." — A strict research established a natural cause 
for the appearance on the window. It was the cus- 
tom of an old woman, to whom the garden beneath 
was rented, to go out at night to gather cabbages. 
The lantern she carried in her hand threw up the re- 
fracted reflection of her form on the chapel window. 
As she stooped to gather her cabbages, the reflection 
appeared to bend forward ; and that was the whole 
matter. 

Another species of deception affecting the credit 
of such supernatural communications, arises from 
the dexterity and skill of the authors who have made 
it their business to present such stories in the shape 
most likely to attract belief. Defoe — whose power 
in rendering credible that which was in itself very 
much the reverse was so peculiarly distinguished — 
has not failed to show his superiority in this species 
of composition. A bookseller of his acquaintance 
had, in the trade phrase, rather overprinted an edition 
of Drelincourt on Death, and complained to Defoe 
of the loss which was likely to ensue. The expe- 
rienced bookmaker, with the purpose of recommend- 
ing the edition, advised his friend to prefix the cele- 
brated narrative of Mrs. Veal's ghost, which he wrote 
Ee2 



330 LETTERS ON 

for the occasion, with such an air of truth, that 
although, in fact, it does not afford a single tittle of 
evidence properly so called, it" nevertheless was 
swallowed so eagerly by the people, that Drelin- 
court's work on Death, which the supposed spirit re- 
commended to the perusal of her friend Mrs. Bar- 
grave, instead of sleeping on the editor's shelf, 
moved off by thousands at once ; the story, incredible 
in itself, and unsupported as it was by evidence or 
inquiry, was received as true, merely from the cun- 
ning of the narrator, and the addition of a number 
of adventitious circumstances, which no man alive 
could have conceived as having occurred to the mind 
of a person composing a fiction. 

It did not require the talents of Defoe, though in 
that species of composition he must stand unrivalled, 
to fix the public attention on a ghost story. John 
Dunton, a man of scribbling celebrity at the time, 
succeeded to a great degree in imposing upon the 
public a tale which he calls the Apparition Evidence. 
The beginning of it at least, for it is of great length, 
has something in it a little new. At Mynehead, in 
Somersetshire, lived an ancient gentlewoman, named 
Mrs. Leckie, whose only son and daughter resided 
in family with her. The son traded to Ireland, and 
was supposed to be worth eight or ten thousand 
pounds, They had a child about live or six years 
old. This family was generally respected in Myne- 
head ; and especially Mrs. Leckie, the old lady, was 
so pleasant in society, that her friends used to say 
to her, and to each other, that it was a thousand 
pities such an excellent, good-humoured gentle- 
woman must, from her age, be soon lost to her 
friends. To which Mrs. Leckie often made the 
somewhat startling reply : " For as much as you now 
seem to like me, I am afraid you will but little care 
to see or speak with me after my death, though I be- 
lieve you may have that satisfaction." Die, how- 
ever, she did, and after her funeral, was repeatedly 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 331 

seen in her personal likeness, at home and abroad, 
by night and by noon-day. 

One story is told, of a doctor of physic walking 
into the fields, who in his return met with this spec- 
tre, whom he at first accosted civilly, and paid her 
the courtesy of handing her over a style ; observing, 
however, that she did not move her lips in speaking, 
or her eyes in looking round, he became suspicious 
of the condition of his companion, and showed some 
desire to be rid of her society. Offended at this, the 
hag at next style planted herself upon it, and ob- 
structed his passage. He got through at length 
with some difficulty, and not without a sound kick, 
and an admonition to pay more attention to the next 
aged gentlewoman whom he met. " But this," says 
John Dunton, " was a petty and inconsiderable prank 
to what she played in her son's house, and elsewhere. 
She would at noon-day appear upon the key of Myne- 
head, and cry, ' A boat, a boat, ho ! a boat, a boat, 
ho !' If any boatmen or seamen were in sight and 
did not come, they were sure to be cast away ; and 
if they did come, 't was all one, they were cast away. 
It was equally dangerous to please and displease 
her. Her son had several ships sailing between Ire- 
land and England ; no sooner did they make land, 
and come in sight of England, but this ghost would 
appear in the same garb and likeness as when she 
was alive, and, standing at the mainmast, would blow 
with a whistle, and though it were never so great a 
calm, yet immediately there would arise a most 
dreadful storm, that would break, wreck, and drown 
the ship and goods, only the seamen would escape 
with their lives — the Devil had no permission from 
God to take them away. Yet at this rate, by her 
frequent apparitions and disturbances, she had made 
a poor merchant of her son, for his fair estate was all 
buried in the sea, and he that was once worth thou- 
sands was reduced to a very poor and low condition 
in the world ; for whether the ship was his own or 



332 LETTERS ON 

hired, or he had but goods on board it to the value of 
twenty shillings, this troublesome ghost would come 
as before, whistle in a calm at the mainmast at noon- 
day, when they had descried land, and then ship and 
goods went all out of hand to wreck ; insomuch that 
he could at last get no ships wherein to stow his 
goods, nor any mariner to sail in them ; for, knowing 
what an uncomfortable, fatal, and losing voyage 
they should make of it, they did all decline his ser- 
vice. In her son's house she hath her constant 
haunts by day and night ; but whether he did not, or 
would not own, if he did see her, he always professed 
he never saw her. Sometimes when in bed with his 
wife, she would cry out, * Husband, look, there's 
your mother !' And when he would turn to the right 
side, then was she gone to the left ; and when to the 
left side of the bed, then was she gone to the right : 
only one evening their only child, a girl of about five 
or six years old, lying in a truckle-bed under them, 
cries out, " help me, father ! help me, mother, for 
grandmother will choke me !' and before they could 
get to their child's assistance, she had murdered it ; 
they finding the poor girl dead, her throat having 
been pinched by two fingers, which stopped her 
breath and strangled her. This was the sorest of 
all their afflictions; their estate is gone, and now 
their child is gone also ; you may guess at their grief 
and great sorrow. One morning after the child's 
funeral, her husband being abroad, about eleven in 
the forenoon, Mrs. Leckie the younger goes up into 
her chamber to dress. her head, and, as she was look- 
ing into the glass, she spies her mother-in-law, the 
old beldam, looking over her shoulder. This cast 
her into a great horror ; but recollecting her affrighted 
spirits, and recovering the exercise of her reason, 
faith, and hope, having cast up a short and silent 
prayer to God, she turns about, and bespeaks her : 
' In the name of God, mother, why do you trouble 
me F— < Peace !' says the spectrum ; ' I will do thee 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 333 

no hurt.' — 'What will you have of me?' says the 
daughter," &c* Dunton, the narrator, and probably 
the contriver of the story, proceeds to inform us, at 
length, of a commission which the wife of Mr. Leckie 
receives from the ghost to deliver to Atherton, Bishop 
of Waterford, a guilty and unfortunate man, who 
afterward died by the hands of the executioner; 
but that part of the subject is too disagreeable and 
tedious to enter upon. 

So deep was the impression made by the story on 
the inhabitants of Mynehead, that it is said the tra- 
dition of Mrs. Leckie still remains in that port, and 
that mariners belonging to it often, amid tempestuous 
weather, conceive they hear the whistle-call of the 
implacable hag who was the source of so much mis- 
chief to her own family. However, already too de- 
sultory, and too long, it would become intolerably 
tedious were we to insist farther on the peculiar sort 
of genius by which stories of this kind may be em- 
bodied and prolonged. 

I may, however, add, that the charm of the tale 
depends much upon the age of the person to whom 
it is addressed ; and that the vivacity of fancy which 
engages us in youth to pass over much that is absurd, 
in order to enjoy some single trait of imagination, 
dies within us when we obtain the age of manhood, 
and the sadder and graver regions which lie beyond 
it. I am the more conscious of this, because I have 
been myself, at two periods of my life, distant from 
each other, engaged in scenes favourable to that de- 
gree of superstitious awe which my countrymen ex- 
pressively call being eerie. 

On the first of these occasions, I was only nineteen 
or twenty years old, when I happened to pass a night 
in the magnificent old baronial castle of Glammis, 
the hereditary seat of the Earls of Strathmore. The 
hoary £ile contains much in its appearance* and in 

* Apparition Evidence. 



334 LETTERS ON 

the traditions connected with it, impressive to the 
imagination. It was the scene of the murder of a 
Scottish king of great antiquity; not, indeed, the 
gracious Duncan, with whom the name naturally 
associates itself, but Malcolm the Second. It 
contains also a curious monument of the peril of 
feudal times, being a secret chamber, the entrance 
of which, by the law or custom of the family, must 
only be known to three persons at once, viz. the Earl 
of. Strathmore, his heir apparent, and any third per- 
son whom they may take into their confidence. The 
extreme antiquity of the building is vouched by the 
immense thickness of the walls, and the wild and 
straggling arrangement of the accommodation within 
doors. As the late Earl of Strathmore seldom re- 
sided in that ancient mansion, it was, when I was 
there, but half furnished, and that with moveables 
of great antiquity, which, with the pieces of chivalric 
armour hanging upon the walls, greatly contributed 
to the general effect of the whole. After a very hos- 
pitable reception from the late Peter Proctor, Esq., 
then seneschal of the castle, in Lord Strathmore's 
absence, I was conducted to my apartment in a dis- 
tant corner of the building. I must own, that as I 
heard door after door shut, after my conductor had 
retired, I began to consider myself too far from the 
living, and somewhat too near the dead. We had 
passed through what is called " the King's room," a 
vaulted apartment, garnished with stags' antlers, and 
similar trophies of the chase, and said by tradition to 
be the spot of Malcolm's murder, and I had an idea 
of the vicinity of the castle chapel. 

In spite of the truth of histoiy, the whole night 
scene in Macbeth's castle rushed at once upon my 
mind, and struck my imagination more forcibly than 
even when I have seen its terrors represented by the 
late John Kemble and his inimitable sister. In a 
word, I experienced sensations, which, though not 
remarkable either for timidity or superstition, did not 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 335 

fail to effect me to the point of being disagreeable, 
while they were mingled at the same time with a 
strange and indescribable kind of pleasure, the re- 
collection of which affords me gratification at this 
moment. 

In the year 1814, accident placed me, then past mid- 
dle life, in a situation somewhat similar to that which 
I have described. 

I had been on a pleasure voyage with some friends 
around the north coast of Scotland, and in that course 
had arrived in the salt-water lake under the Castle 
of Dunvegan, whose turrets, situated upon a frowning 
rock, rise immediately above the waves of the loch. 
As most of the party, and I myself in particular, 
chanced to be well known to the Laird of Macleod, 
we were welcomed to the castle with Higland hos- 
pitality, and glad to find ourselves in polished society, 
after a cruise of some duration. The most modern 
part of the castle was founded in the days of James 
VI. ; the more ancient is referred to a period " whose 
birth tradition notes not." Until the present Mac- 
leod connected by a drawbridge the site of the castle 
with the mainland of Skye, the access must have 
been extremely difficult. Indeed, so much greater 
was the regard paid to security than to convenience, 
that in former times the only access to the mansion 
arose through a vaulted cavern in a rock, up which 
a staircase ascended from the sea shore, like the 
buildings we read of in the romances of Mrs. Radcliffe. 

Such a castle in the extremity of the Highlands 
was of course furnished with many a tale of tradi- 
tion, and many a superstitious legend to fill occa- 
sional intervals in the music and song, as proper to 
the halls of Dunvegan as when Johnson comme- 
morated them. We reviewed the arms and ancient 
valuables of this distinguished family — saw the dirk 
and broadsword of Rorie Mhor, and his horn, which 
would drench three chiefs of these degenerate days. 
The solemn drinking cu»p of the Kings of Man must 



336 LETTERS ON 

not be forgotten, nor the fairy banner given to 
Macleod by the Queen of Fairies ; that magic flag, 
which has been victorious in two pitched fields, and 
will still float in a third, the bloodiest and the last, 
when the Elfin Sovereign shall, after the fight is 
ended, recall her banner, and carry off the standard- 
bearer. 

Amid such tales of ancient tradition, I had from 
Macleod and his lady the courteous offer of the 
haunted apartment of the castle, about which, as a 
stranger, I might be supposed interested. Ac- 
cordingly, I took possession of it about the witching 
hour. Except, perhaps, some tapestry hangings, and 
the extreme thickness of the walls, which argued 
great antiquity, nothing could have been more com- 
fortable than the interior of the apartment ; but if 
you looked from the windows, the view was such as 
to correspond with the highest tone of superstition. 
An autumnal blast, sometimes clear, sometimes 
driving mist before it, swept along the troubled bil- 
lows of the lake, which it occasionally concealed, 
and by fits disclosed. The waves rushed in wild 
disorder on the shore, and covered with foam the 
steep piles of rock, which rising from the sea in 
forms something resembling the human figure, have 
obtained the name of Macleod's Maidens, and in 
such a night, seemed no bad representatives of the 
Norwegian goddesses, called Choosers of the Sla x n, 
or Riders of the Storm. There was something of 
the dignity of danger in the scene ; for on a platform 
beneath the windows lay an ancient battery of 
cannon, which had sometimes been used against 
privateers even of late years. The distant scene 
was a view of that part of the Quillan mountains 
which are called, from their form, Macleod's Dining- 
Tables. The voice of an angry cascade, termed the 
Nurse of Rorie Mhor, because that chief slept best in 
its vicinity, was heard from time to time mingling its 
notes with those of wind and wave. Such was the 



DEMONOLOGY AND WITCHCRAFT. 337 

haunted room at Dunvegan, and as such, it well de- 
served a less sleepy inhabitant. In the language of 
Dr. Johnson, who has stamped his memory on this 
remote place, " I looked around me, and wondered 
that I was not more affected ; but the mind is not at 
all times equally ready to be moved." In a word, it 
is necessary to confess, that, of all I heard or saw, 
the most engaging spectacle was the comfortable 
bed, in which I hoped to make amends for some 
rough nights on ship-board, and where I slept ac- 
cordingly, without thinking of ghost or goblin, till -I 
was called by my servant in the morning. 

From this I am taught to infer, that tales of ghosts 
and demonology are out of date at forty years and 
upwards ; that it is only in the morning of life that 
this feeling of superstition "comes o'er us like a 
summer cloud," affecting us with fear, which is 
solemn and awful rather than painful; and I am 
tempted to think, that if I were to write on the sub- 
ject at all, it should have been during a period of life 
when I could have treated it with more interesting 
vivacity, and might have been at least amusing, if I 
could not be instructive. Even the present fashion 
of the world seems to be ill suited for studies of this 
fantastic nature ; and the most ordinary mechanic has 
learning sufficient to laugh at the figments which in 
former times were believed by persons far advanced 
in the deepest knowledge of the age. 

I cannot, however, in conscience, carry my opinion 
of my countrymen's good sense so far as to excul- 
pate them entirely from the charge of credulity. 
Those who are disposed to look for them may, with- 
out much trouble, see such manifest signs, both of 
superstition and the disposition to believe in its doc- 
trines, as may render it no useless occupation to 
compare the follies of our fathers with our own. 
The sailors have a proverb that every man in his 
lifetime must eat a peck of impurity ; and it seems 
yet more clear that every generation of the human 
Ff 



338 LETTERS &C. 

race must swallow a certain measure of nonsense, 
There remains hope, however, that the grosser faults 
of our ancestors are now out of date ; and that what- 
ever follies the present race may be guilty of, the 
sense of humanity is too universally spread to per- 
mit them to think of tormenting wretches till they 
confess what is impossible, and then burning them 
for their pains. 



THE END. 



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itself to the hardship of the times, this wort is published in a form and at a price which 
render it accessible to all classes of the reading public." — Suffolk Herald. 

" After the merited praise that has already been given to this work, it cannot be supposed 
that we have any thing particularly original to offer respecting it. We are glad to find that 
the pubiic have duly appreciated it* merits, and that a new edition has been called for." 

Bristol Mirror. 

"The great history, always inteiesiing, was never better told. The whole work is 
highly creditable to the autbo? aiud publishers. As it deserves, it ha» already reached a 
second edition."— fiTeni Herald. 

" So great has been the avid'ty with which the two first volumes of the Family Library 
have been bought up, that it has' oeen found necessary tc republish them."— Man'. Courier. 

I' Of the *Life of Napoleon Buonaparte' an unusually large impression was speedily 
ea'led for; and a new edition, consisting of ten thousand copies, has just appeared. This 
little work lias been justly lauded by all f .vties, for the tone of grave and generous candour 
which it maintains throughout, it is, in truth, a masterly epitome of all that has been 
proved to be true, concerning the career of the most extraordinary nun of the last thousand 
years."— Cork Southern Reporter. 

" It is written with great judgment, clearness, and conciseness, and leaves nothing to bo 
wished for, either in the matter or manne' A its composition." — John Bull. 

" Judging by the present specimen, the ' Family Library' must become a favouite to alt 
classes, and benefi. society in gener '.." — Birmingham Journal. 

" These volumes may safely be committed to the hand of youth, by whom they will be 
strongly relished for the amazing interest, variety, and fullness of the "details."— Sun. 

" It seems to us to b5 a book which ' must take,' and we heartily wish it all the success 
it merits." — Durham County Ch-onicle. 

" We never met with more solid information compressed within so small a space ; and 
yet the brevity of the style never runs into obsci.rity. On the contrary, we should be much 
at a loss to point out such another specimen of narrative clearness, in the whole range of 
contemporary literature. Two volumes so rich in information and interest, so much to be 
devoured by youth, and so worthy to be consulted by the maturest reader, would constitute 
certainly one of the cheapest of all possible cheap books. Of a work already so widely 
known it would be ridiculous to multiply specimens in these pages; but one passage will 
be complained of by no one; ' Nunc legan' qui nunquam legebant, quique legebant nunc 
leggnt.' We have readers in regions to which even the cheapest books do not easily find 
their way — and in many an Inuian can'onment the striking paragraphs which follow will 
he perused for the first time on our pages."— Blackwood's Magazine. 



" We need scarce'y express the pleasure this work has afforded us."— Gent.'s Mag. 
" A publication of such high merit cannot be too extensively circulated." 

Glasgow Free Fra 

"This is a book that must be popular v — Scotsman. 

■ Most confidently do we recommend it to our readers."— Oxford Herald, 



THE LIFE OF NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. 
Nos. IT. & V., with copperplate Engravings, and 
Woodcuts from designs of G. Cruikshank. From 
the 2d London edition. Neatly bound in canvas 
2 vols. 

" THE FAMILY LIBRARY— a work which no one can fake into his hands without peT 
ceiving that the supply of the reading market is undergoing, or about to undergo, a complet* 
revolution ; which, in* the names of some of its writers, furnishes evidence that the very high 
est talent no longer disdains to labour for those who can buy cheap books only — and evidenc* 
Ave are still more happy to see, that an attempt at least is to be made to infuse and strengthen 
right principles and feelings, as well as to extend more knowledge, among those classes." 

Quarterly Review, No. LXXVIII. 

"We noticed the first volume of this beautiful work at the period of its publication, and 
we shall merely remark, that the present volume fully maintain* the high character which 
its predecessor demanded from us." — Berkshire Chronicle. 

" Au total l'echantillon que M. Murray nous a donne, est d'un bon augure pour les autre* 
parties de la collection, Pediteur a puise aux bonnes sources et l'on peut s'en convaincre, 
non seulement par le corps meme de l'ouvrage, mais aussi par les gravures dont il Pa em- 
belli j nous engageons dcjc les amateurs a souscrire, et a encourager les louables efforts 
qu'uu libraire estimable prodigue pour leur plaire." — Furet de Londres. 

" The first work published is a happy specimen ; si sic omnia, this will be the most de- 
lightful collection ever made. It is the Life of Buonaparte, told in a style which impartt 
all the charms of romance to the severe and exact truths of history. It is, indeed, in every 
respect, a model of composition."— Standard, April 16. 

u The volume before us contains about as much matter as an ordinary octavo ; arid, consi- 
dering the style in which it is brought out, it is certainly very cheap."— The Scotsman. 

" We are very sure that if the Family Library goes on as it begins, it will soon do more 
to put down the trade of literary trashery than any arguments or reflections we could intro 
duce here; and we therefore conclude with our most hearty commendations of a design, the 
first example of which merits the highest encomium we can bestow upon it." 

Literary Gazette. 

" It is a work that should be in the hands of both old and young. It is, in fact, as the 
title imports, a Family Library."— Courier and Enquirer. 

" We have examined the first volumes of the Family Library, and find them, as we ex- 
pected from the subject, and the reputation of the author, very interesting. No plan that 
we have met with, is as well calculated to furnish a library for ordinary use in families, as 
this j and we hope the attempt of the publishers may meet with a liberal patronage." 

N. Y. Daily Advertiser. 

" This is both a beautiful and an interesting volume. The Life itself is very pleasantly 
and clearlv written, and forms an agreeable pendant to the more operose and voluminous 
production of Sir Walter Scott."— Caledonian Mercury. 

"We can confidently recommend the work to all persons desirous of possessing a popular 
life of Napoleon."— Falmouth Packet. 

" It is, unquestionably, in a brief and tangible form, the most popular History of Napo- 
leon that has been yet produced."— Atlas. 

Works in preparation for the Family Library, 

THE LIFE OF GENERAL, THE EARL OF PETER- 
BOROUGH. 
THE LIFE OF MARLBOROUGH. 
THE LIFE OF GENERAL WOLFE. 
THE LIFE OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 
THE LIFE AND REIGN OF GEORGE III. 
A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH REFORMERS. 



LIFE OF NELSON. By Robert Southey, Esq., 
with a Portrait. No. VI. of the Family Library. 

" This is the best work that ever came from the pen of the laureate, 
and it is an excellent specimen of biography. The Family Library is 
"what its name implies, a collection of works of the best kind, containing 
reading useful and interesting to the family circle. It is neatly printed 
and should be in every family that can afford it — the price being mode* 
rate." — New England Palladium. 

" The interest and value of the matter which the Family Library con- 
tains, has already established its popularity. This work will undoubt- 
edly very soon grace every private and public library in the country." 
— Albany Evening Journal. 

" The merits of this work are so well known that it is altogether un- 
necessary to recommend it to our readers." — New York Evening Post. 

" The illustrious subject of this volume, and the reputation of Southey 
as a biographer, will be a sufficient guarantee for the interest of the 
work." — New- York Constellation. 

" Southey's fine and popular biography of Nelson was very much 
wanted, and is now to be had very cheap, in a very neat and convenient 
form." — New- York Commercial Advertiser. 

" We take much pleasure in recommending this work to the public, 
because we really consider it as useful and as deserving of encourage- 
ment as any that has ever been in the American press." — New- York 
Courier and Enquirer. 

" It is got up in the style of the preceding volumes, and is em- 
bellished by a well-executed portrait of the hero of the Nile. This 
workhas long been favourably known to the public, and has been before 
pubished in this country, and extensively and advantageously read by 
almost all classes of readers. But we are assured, that the present 
edition has been rewritten expressly for the family library, and for- 
mer inaccuracies or inelegancies of style corrected. The selection of 
this work as one of the series is judicious, and will tend to enhance 
the value of the whole. It is well written ; and consists of many nar 
ratives of intense interest, and highly wrought description." — New- York 
Mercantile Advertiser. 

" It is a faithful narrative of the hero of Trafalgar, and paints his 
character with much force, and in its true colouring. We consider this 
number a valuable gem in the Family Library, and therefore strongly 
recommend it." — Truth-Teller. 

" The publishers intend to incorporate some works of an American 
character, which will greatly augment the value of their edition of the 
Library. This last improvement is all that is wanting to make this 
work one of the most valuable miscellaneous publications that ever 
issued from the press." — New- York American. 

Family Library.—" The undertaking is one of magnitude, and de- 
serving of public encouragement. It affords a cheap as well as elegant 
edition of works combining amusement with instruction, and proper for 
family use." — Baltimore Republican. 

" The Family Library is got up with a good deal of expense, and should 
be liberally patronised to enable the publishers to realize those rewards 
which the expenditure of time and money in a good cause should never 
foil to obtain."— New- York Constellation. 



THE LIFE OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 
By Rev. J. Williams. With a Map. No. VII. of 
the Family Library. 

" The style is good, and the narrative well conducted. A modem 
history of this famous warrior cannot fail to be entertaining." — New* 
York Daily Advertiser. 

" The work is instructing, and inherits a greater share of interest from 
the fact, that the history of this ancient Napoleon is disintegrated from 
the mass of general history, and presented by itself. The styie is lucid 
and well studied."— New-York Journal of Commerce. 

•' The fourth work included in this collection is a life of Alexander the 
Great, written by the Rev. John Williams, (of Bahol College, Oxford,) 
the well-known founder and head of the New Edinburgh Academy, and 
written in a manner worthy of his high scholastic reputation. He has 
displayed felicitously in this volume both the natural and acquired en- 
dowments of his mind— filled a blank in the historical library, furnished 
the schoolmaster, and also the schoolboy, whether at home or abroad, 
with a capital manual— and there will never be, in as far as we can see, 
the smallest occasion for writing this story over again."— Blackwood's 
Magazine. 

" This constitutes the seventh volume of the Family Library. It is 
incomparably the best life — the most careful and correct estimate of 
Alexander's achievements we have." — Monthly Magazine. 

" We are greatly mistaken if this little volume does not become a 
school book. It is far better fitted for that purpose than any one of 
recent publication, with which we have chanced to meet." — Literary 
Gazette. 

" The present biography is among the mosl fascinating specimens of 
biography we have ever had the good fortune to peruse."— Sun. 

" To us, Mr. Williams appears to have executed his task in a most 
judicious manner." — The Scot's Times. 

" This is a much better book than any other in English on the same 
subject." — A thencB um . 

" It is ably and eloquently written."— Birmingham Journal 

Works in preparation for the Family Library. 

Having secured the co-operation of some of the most eminent writers 
in the country, the publisher's will henceforward direct their best efforts 
to provide a body of popular and useful reading, adapted for all classes, 
and throughout selected on the principle of presenting nothing which a 
Christian parent may not safely place in the hands of his family. The 
scheme will also embrace a series of works en practical science, popu- 
larly written, and abundantly illustrated and embellished. 

LIFE OF MOHAMMED. By Rev. George Bush, A. M. 

LIFE OF FULTON. By C. D. Colden, Esq. 

LIFE OF CLINTON. By David Hossack, LL. D. 

LIVES OF WASHINGTON and FRANKLIN. Improved editions. 

LIFE OF GENERAL WOLFE. By Robert Southey, Esq. 

LIFE OF CERVANTES. By J. G. Lockhart, Esq. 

LD7E OF THE EARL OF PETERBOROUGH. By Walter Scott 

LIFE OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON. By Dr. Brewster. 



NATURAL HISTORY OP INSECTS: No. VIII. 
of the Family Library. Illustrated by numerous 
Engravings. 

" We have repeatedly borne testimony to the utility of this Family 
Library. It is one of the best works that has ever issued from the 
American press. The matter of this number must prove particularly 
useful and amusing to all classes of society — It should be in the 
library of every family desirous of treasuring up useful knowledge." 

Boston Statesman. 

" The Family Library i:s in all respects a valuable work. It should be 
in the possession of every father who is anxious for the information of 
his offspring. The History of Insects is a curious one. Many of the 
details are wonderful and full of interest." — Philadelphia Inquirer. 

"We have read the eighth number of this most valuable series with 
unusual interest and satisfaction. Of all studies, perhaps, there is none 

more captivating than that of animated nature The present volume 

is peculiarly useful and agreeable." — New-York Mirror. 

" The subject is full of interest and satisfaction, and is adapted to all 
classes of readers. The Family Library is so emphatically what it pur- 
ports to be, that we are anxious to see it in every family." 

Albany Evening Journal. 
" The information is minute, well arranged, and clearly imparted, and 
cannot but recommend the work to general perusal in families." 

New- York Standard. 
" It will prove instructive and amusing to all classes. We are pleased 
to learn that the works composing this Library have become, as they 
ought to be, quite popular among the heads of families." 

New-York Gazette. 
" It is the duty of every person having a family, to put this excellent 
Library into the hands of his children."— N. Y. Mercantile Advertiser. 

*' It seems to us, that it will prove at once agreeable and instructive to 
persons of all classes, and occupy an appropriate place in the Family 
Library." — N. Y. Daily Advertiser. 

"' This work must prove useful and interesting to all classes." 

Albany Daily Advertiser. 

" We have so repeatedly spoken of the merits of the design of this 
work, and of the able manner in which it is edited, that on this occasion 
we will only repeat our conviction, that it is worthy of a place in every 
library in the country, and will prove one of the most useful as it is 
one of the most interesting publications which has ever issued from the 
American press."— N. Y. Courier & Enquirer. 

" We are disposed to think this will meet with even greater success 
than the preceding volumes. The study of animated nature, in itself 
pleasing, is absolutely necessary as a branch of useful knowledge. In 
the present volume the subject is treated with peculiar adroitness, and 
contains only such details as render the study of Natural History 
amusing, and at the same time highly instructive. The present volume 
we should conceive would be highly advantageous for the use of schools ; 
and we recommend its being placed in every one's library, as a work full 
of useful and interesting information."— Truth Teller. 



THE LIFE OF LORD BYRON. By John Galt, 
Esq. 18mo., being No. IX. of the Family Library. 

" The volume has great merit, and is a valuable acquisition to litera- 
ture." — New-York Spectator. 

" Mr. Gait is a line writer, and was personally acquainted with Byron. 
It seems to us, that the excellence and interest of the Family Library 
increase with every number. It is a great work, and deserves universal 
popularity." — Boston Statesman. 

" The sprightly pen of the author has communicated uncommon inte- 
rest to this work, and he appears to have done perfect justice to its in- 
spired subject. We again commend the Family Library, as a collection 
of works which ought to be possessed by every one." — Albany Daily 
Advertiser. 

" The subject is one of very great interest, which is of course enhanced 
by the reputation of the writer." — Baltimore Republican. 

" Mr. Gait is one of the most fascinating writers of the age."— Jour- 
nal of Commerce. 

" No. IX. of the Family Library contains, in a concise, but interesting 
form, a Memoir of the Life and Literary Labours of Lord Byron, by Mr 
Gait ; whose classic pen imparts interest and value to every thing it 
touches." — Albany Evening Journal. 

" The work is well written, and gives many particulars in the career 
of the gifted bard which we never before met with in print." — Pennsyl- 
vania Inquirer. 

" Mr. Gait is well and favourably known as a writer." — Mercantile 
Advertiser. 

" We doubt not, from Mr. Gait's well-known talents, that his Biogra- 
phy of the Newstead Bard will prove one of the most amusing and well 
written works of the day." — New-York Standard. 

" It is the work of one of the most sprightly and popular writers of the 
day, and has the advantage of being comprised in the moderate compass 
of a single volume." — Evening Post. 

" The publishers of the Family Library deserve the thanks of the 
reading community for the zeal with which their undertaking is pur- 
sued." — Philadelphia Daily Chronicle. 

11 Mr. Gait is in the habit of eliciting the truth from whatever he un- 
dertakes to consider or develope. So much of the exact truth, in respect 
to Byron, was never before discovered, corrected, and set down, as we 
find in this very interesting volume.'-'— Court Journal. 

u To be worthy of a place in a publication which is so decidedly and so 
deservedly popular with the public, it should possess more than ordinary 
merit ; and that this is the case we are led to believe, first, from its being 
from the pen of Mr. Gait ; and secondly, from the publishers having 
assigned it a place in their Family Library."— New-York Courier. 

" Gait is a powerful writer. His critical abilities, and the rare oppor- 
tunity which he enjoyed of reading the heart-secrets of the mysterious 
poet, give an undoubted value to this history."— New-York Cabinet. 

Mr. Gait says in his Preface, " I never stood on such a footing with 
his Lordship, as to inspire me with any sentiment likely to bias my 
judgment. * * * * I am gratified with the recollection of having 
known a person so celebrated, and I believe myself incapable of in* 
tentional injustice." 



THE FAMILY LIBRARY. 



Several Numbers of this work are now itf 
press, and will shortly be ready for publication. 

To render the American edition of " The Fa- 
mily Library" still more worthy of the extensive 
patronage which it has received, the publishers 
intend to incorporate in it such works of interest 
and value as may be embraced in " The Library 
of General Knowledge," " The National Family 
Library" "The Library of Modern Travels," 
" Constable's Miscellany," &c. These produc- 
tions, as they appear from the London presses, will 
be submitted to the inspection of several literary 
gentlemen, and all such, and only such, as will be 
calculated to maintain and exalt the present ele- 
vated character of " The Family Library" will 
be reprinted. 

In addition to these proposed acquisitions, the 
publishers have engaged several writers, already 
advantageously known to the public, to prepare 
for this " Library" works of an American charac- 
ter, on interesting and popular subjects. In short, 
every exertion will be made to render the/ "Fa- 
mily Library" a work equally entertaining to age 
and instructive to youth ; alike profi^ahle to the 
illiterate, and acceptable to the learned. 



STEREOTYPE WORKS 

RECENTLY PUBLISHED BY J. & J. HARPER, 



COOPER'S SURGICAL DICTIONARY. 8vo. 
MOORE'S LIFE OF BYRON. 2 vols. 8vo. 
ROBERTSON'S WORKS. 3 vols. 8vo. 
GIBBON'S ROME. 4 vols. 8vo. With Plates. 
HOOPER'S MEDICAL DICTIONARY. 8vo. 
CRABB'S ENGLISH SYNONYMES. 8vo. 
BROWN'S CONCORDANCE. 32mo. 
MILMAN'S HISTORY OF THE JEWS. 3v.l8mo. 
L'OCKHART'S NAPOLEON. 2 vols. 18mo. 
SOUTHEY'S LIFE OF NELSON. 18mo. 
LIFE OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 18mo. 
NATURAL HISTORY OF INSECTS. 18mo. 
HOUSEKEEPER'S MANUAL. 12mo. 
PARKES'S DOMESTIC DUTIES. 12mo. 
PELHAM; THE DISOWNED; DEVEREUX; 
PAUL CLIFFORD ; and FALKLAND. 9 vols. 

Stereotyping, and nearly ready, 

RUSSELL'S MODERN EUROPE. 3 vols. 8vo. 
GOOD'S BOOK OF NATURE. Improved. 8vo. 
HOSACK'S LIFE OF CLINTON. 18mo. 
COLDEN'S LIFE OF FULTON. 18mo. 
BUSH'S LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 18mo. 
PAINTERS AND SCULPTORS. 18mo. 

New- York, October, 183a 



VALUABLE WORKS 

Recently Printed by J. & J. HARPER, New- York, 
And for sale by the principal Booksellers throughout the United State*. 



PELHAM; or, THE ADVENTURES OF A 
GENTLEMAN. A Novel. In 2 vols. 12mo. [By 
the Author of i The Disowned,' ' Devereux,' ' Paul 
Clifford,' and ' Falkland.'] [Stereotyped.] 

u If the most brilliant wit, a narrative whose interest never flags, and some pictures of thei 
most riveting interest, can make a work popular, ' Pelham' will be as first rate in celebrity 
as it is in excellence. The scenes are laid in fashionable life."— Literary Gaz. 

THE DISOWNED. A Novel. In 2 vols. 12mo. 
[By the Author of ' Pelham,' * Devereux,' ' Paul 
Clifford,' and ' Falkland.'] [Stereotyped.] 

"We have examined ' The Disowned,' and find it fully equal in plot, character, and de- 
Bcription to Pelham; and vastly more philosophic and reflecting. It is by far the most in. 
tellectual fiction that we have seen for a long time ; and in it may be found some of the 
finest maxims, and from it may be drawn some of the best morals, "for the guidance of the 
human heart." — Albion. 

DEVEREUX. A Novel. In 2 vols. 12mp. [By 
the Author of 'Pelham,' 'The Disowned,' 'Paul 
Clifford,' and ' Falkland.'] [Stereotyped.] 

" — The author of ' Pelham,' ' The Disowned.' and ' Devereux' possesses the most 
brilliant qualifications of a successful novelist. — His conception of character is exquisite; 
his descriptive powers are unequalled ; he has wit, pathos, energy, and discrimination in 
an eminent degree; and he is, moreover, a ripe scholar. In one particular he is not sur- 
passed by any writer of the present or of any other day ; we mean the faculty of imp<irting' 
deep and uncontrollable interest to his stories." — N. Y. Mirror and Ladies* Lit. Gazette.. 

PAUL CLIFFORD. A Novel. In 2 vols. 12mo. 
[By the Author of 'Pelham,' 'The Disowned,' 
' Devereux,' and ' Falkland.'] [Stereotyped.] 

" ' Paul Clifford' is the most original of all Mr. Bulwer's works, and cannot fail to add' 
largely to its writer's reputation. For tha man of the world, it contains shrewdness and 
satire; for the moralist, matter of deep thought; and for the young, all the interest of 
narrative and all the poetry of feeling."— The Albion. 

FALKLAND. A Novel. {By the Author oJ 
' Pelham,' ' The Disowned,' 'Devereux,' and ' Pat* 
Clifford.'] [Stereotyped.] 



Works Recently Published. 

WALTER COLYTON. A Tale. In 2 vols. 
12mo. By the Author of " Brambletye House," 

" Zillah," &c. &c. 

" The author has great power, very great power ; and while reading him, we feel that 
we have a master to deal with ; and if he do not reach the grandeur to which the author 
of Waverley occasionally rises, his course is more regular, his vigour better sustained, and 
a more steady interest is kept up throughout.— Edinburgh Magazine. 

THE NEW FOREST. A Novel. In 2 vols. 
12mo. By the author of " Brambletye House," " Zil- 
lah," &c. &c. 

" To say that this novel is by the author of ' Brambletye House,' implies that it is lively, 
graphic, and forcible; and such must be the general impression of 'The New Forest.'" 
—Court Journal. 

THE COLLEGIANS. A Novel. In 2 vols. 12mo. 

" The stern imbecility of the heart-broken gentleman may be compared in effect and in 
touching beauty, to that most beautiful and impassioned scene in the 'Antiquary,' tho 
Fisherman's lamentation over his son. Can praise go higher ?" — Spectator. 

THE RIVALS. A Novel. By the Author of 
" The Collegians" &c. In 2 volumes, 12mo. 

"For touches of genuine pathos, simplicity, and most highly-wrought interest, we make 
question if any thing of the kind ever took precedency of the Stories of this writer j an4 
their effect must be to raise their young author high in the rank of illustrious names, now 
securely established in the records of literature, and highest of all in the annals of precocious 
genius."— Examiner. 

HUNGARIAN TALES. In 2 vols. 12mo. By 
the Author of "The Lettre de Cachet," and "Ro- 
mances of Real Life." 

" Written with great vigour and purity of style, highly interesting in the develops 

ment of the stories, and abounding with fine and graphic descriptions of character, as well 
as of external objects."— New-York Mirror. 

ROMANCES OF REAL LIFE. In 2 vols. 12mo. 
By the Author of " Hungarian Tales." 

" For a light, free, flowing, and truly feminine style, we know not where to look for 
Mrs. Charles Gore's equal among living female writers, or her superior among dead 
ones. She is a charming writer, and one who will not easily find a rival, except in— herself. 
In other words, she, and she only, is the writer who can make us forget the pleasure which 
we have received from these < Romances of Real Life.' "—Court Journal. 

COMING OUT; and THE FIELD OF THE 
FORTY FOOTSTEPS. Novels. By Misses Janb 
and Anna Maria Porter. In 2 vols. 12mo. 

" These works are a proud testimony, not only to the sisterly love of these ladies, bet 
to their high attainments."— New- York Mirror. 

THE BARONY. A Novel. In 2 vols. 12mo. 
By Miss Anna Maria Porter. 

" This is a delightful work— it will be, and deserves to^be, highly popular."— Lit. Gazette* 



Works Recently Published. 

THE HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE, from 
the 'rise of the Modern Kingdoms to the present pe- 
riod. By William Russell, LL.D., and William 
Jones, Esq. With Annotations by an American. 
In 3 vols. 8vo. [Stereotyped — nearly ready.] 

This History of Modern Europe being universally considered ?. very valuable as well 
as a very interesting work, the publishers have stereotyped it uniform' with the historical 
works of Robertson and Gibbon- — It will t-e comprised in three octavo volumes, embellished 
with copperplate engravings, and executed in such a manner as to render it worthy the 
patronage of the American public 

THE WORKS of the Rev. JOHN WESLEY. 

A.M. With his LIFE. Complete in 10 vols. 8vo. 
From the last London Edition. With a Portrait. 

These Works should form a part of every Christian's I the Methodist they 

are indispensable. The Sermons are comprised in three v 

Works also in three volumes — and the Journal in four volumes. Each Work may be 
obtained separately. 

PRESENT STATE OF CHRISTIANITY, and 

of the Missionaiy Establishments for its Propaga- 
tion, in all Parts of the World. Edited by Frederic 
Schoberl. 12mo. 

Schoberl's work on the " Present State of Chris'ianhy'' is highly spoken of, and contains 
a compendium of Missionary exertions from the earliest ages of Christianity to the present 
times. It is a work which may be consulted wiih adva.n-2.r3 by all denominations ; as it 
is written with a truly Christian spirit, and gives due credit to every sect for their exertions 
and labours. The work is concise, giving a summary, or the result, of Missionary labours 
in all parts of the world, and contains the mulium iriparvo. 

LETTERS FROM THE ^GEAN. By James 

Emerson, Esq. In 1 vol. 8vo. 

" The work of Mr. Emerson is replete with amusement from first to last ; it contain* 
much valuable historic and political information; but is principally deserving of praise for 
the accuracy of its remarks on human life, and the thousand interesting narratives by which 
these are illustrated. ,; —Xeio-York Critic 

THE LITERARY REMAINS OF THE LATE 
HENRY NEELE, Author of the "Romance of 
History," &c. &c. — consisting of Lectures on Eng- 
lish Poetry, Tales, and other Miscellaneous Pieces 
in Prose and Verse. 8vo. 

" The work is one well calculated to repay an attentive perusal, and cannot but prora 
liighly entertaining to every reader." — Xew-Tork Critic 

RELIGIOUS DISCOURSES. By a LAYMAN. 

Second Edition. 18mo. 

4; These Sermons are remarkable, as a literary curiosity. The work will be read wifli 
avidity— for thousands are doubtless anxious to'be informed of Sir Walter's opinions is 
jsalteo of religion."— New Monthly Magazine. 



Works Recently Published. 

HOOPER'S MEDICAL DICTIONARY. From 
the last London Edition. With Additions, by 
Samuel Akerly, M.D. 8vo. [Stereotyped.] 

In order to render this stereotype edition of Hooper's Medical Dictionary more accept- 
able to the medical public of the United Stale?, considerable additions have been made, 
particularly en Materia Medica, Mineralogy, Botany, Chemistry, Biography, &c. &c 

COOPER'S SURGICAL DICTIONARY. In 

2 vols. '8vo. Greatly improved and enlarged by the 
Author. [Stereotyped.] 

_ Recently revised by Mr. Cooper, and contains above two hundred pages of matter en- 
urely original, besides numerous co'.es from American Surgeons. 

GOOD'S (Dr. John Mason) STUDY OF MEDI- 
CINE. In 5 vols. 8vo. A new edition. With addi- 
tions by Samuel Cooper, M.D. 

u Dr. Good's extensive reading and retentive memory enable him to enliven the most 
common elementary details, by interweaving curious, uncommon, or illustrative examples 
in almost every page.— We have no hesitation in pronouncing the work, beyond all com- 
parison, the best of the kind in the English language. With the naval, the military, the 
provincial, and the colonial practitioner, the work before us ought at once to supersede the 
nnsfiientific compilation of Dr. Thomas— and it will do so."— Hedico-Chimrg. Review. 

THE BOOK OF NATURE; being a popular 
Illustration of the general Laws and Phenomena of 
Creation, &c. By John Mason Good, M.D. and 
F.R.S. 8vo. [Stereotyped.] 

" —The work is certainly the best philosophical digest of the kind which we have seen.* 

London Monthly Review. 

THE HISTORY OF THE JEWS : (Nos. I. II. 
and III. of the Family Library.) By the Rev. H. 
H. Milman. In 3 volumes, 18mo. Illustrated with 
original Maps and Woodcuts. [Stereotyped.] 

" The Editors have been most fortunate in engaging on thk, "ork the pen of a scholar 
both classical and scriptural, and so elegant and powerful a writer, as the Poetry Professor. 
Few theological works of this order have appeared either in ours or in any ' l he"r laneaiage. 
To the Christian reader of even- age and sex— and we may ad«I . ' c*wj see.— it will be a 
source of the purest delight, instruction, and comfort •' and of ft*, infidels who open it 
merely that they may not remain in ignorance of a wor"& t-.aced by general consent in the 
ank of % an English classic, is there not every reason to hope that many will lay it down in 

far different mood ?"— Blackwood's Magazine. 

THE HISTORY OF NAPOLEON BUONA- 
PARTE : (Nos. IV. and V. of the Family Library.) 
By J. G. Lockhart, Esq. In 2 vols. 18mo. With 
several Copperplate Engravings. [Stereotyped.] 

" It is, unquestionably, in a brief and tangible form, the most popular history of Napoleon 
that has yet been produced."— Atlas, 



Works Recently Published. 

THE LIFE OF NELSON: (No. VI. of the. 
Family Library.) By Robert Southey, Esq. In 1 
vol. 18mo. [Stereotyped.] 

" We are pleased to find that each succeeding number of the Family Library is worthy 
of the promise held out by the first numbers, and the literary talents which they display. 
The present is among the most interesting of those that have yet appeared." — Courier. 

THE LIFE OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT: 
(No. VII. of the Family Library.) By Rev. J Wil- 
liams. In 1 vol. 18mo. [Stereotyped.] 

" Judging by the present specimen, the Family Library must become a favourite to ail 
classes, and" benefit society in general."— 22. Journal. 

GIBSON'S SURVEYING. Improved and en- 
larged. By James Ryan. 8vo. 

This is now the only edition of Gibson's Surveying published in the United States, and b 
accompanied with all the necessary Tables [and Engravings, and sold at a very reduced 
price, 

HISTORICAL VIEW of the LITERATURE of 
the SOUTH OF EUROPE. By M. De Sismondi. 
Translated from the Original, with Notes. By 
Thomas Roscoe, Esq. In 2 large vols. 8vo. 

" This is a valuable and interesting work. It presents a broad and general view of tha 
rise and progress of modern literature, which will be read by those who are uninformed 
on the subject with equal gratification and improvement."— New Times. 

BROWN'S DICTIONARY OF THE HOLY 
BIBLE. From the last genuine Edinburgh edition. 
8vo. 

This edition contains the Author's last additions ar.d corrections, and farther enlarged and 
corrected by his Sons ; with a Lii % of the Author \ and an Essay on the Evidence of Chris- 
tianity. 

A CONCORDANCE to the HOLY SCRIP- 
TURES of the OLD and NEW TESTAMENTS; 
by the Rev. John Brown, of Haddington. Printed 
on Diamond type, in the 3Smo. form. [Stereotyped.] 

This convenient and beautiful little pocket volume, contains, verbatim, the same as 
the original duodecimo edi 

SERMONS ON IMPORTANT SUBJECTS, by 

the late Rev. and pious Samuel Davies, A.M., some 
time President of the College of New-Jersey. In 
3 vols. 8vo. 

To this edition are prefixed, Memoirs and Character of the Author ; and two Sermons 08 
occasion of his Death, by the Rev. Drs. Gibbon and Flnley, and contains all >he Author* 
Sermons ever published. 



Works Recently Published. 

THE RIVALS OF ESTE,and OTHER POEMS. 
By James G. Brooks and Mary E. Brooks. 12mo. 

u The lovers of impassioned and classical numbers may promise themselves much grati 
fication from the muse of Brooks, while the many-stringed harp of his lady, the Noma of 
the Courier, a harp, which none but she can sweep, has a chord for every heart." 

N. Y. Ma-cantile Adv. 

THE REMINISCENCES OF THOMAS DIB- 
DIN. Author of the " Cabinet," &c. &c. 2 vols, 
in 1, 8vo. 

" Dibdin's Reminiscences will be found to contain a larger portion of curious history re 
lating to the intrigues and cabals connected with the internal management of our national 
theatres than any other work extant. The letters written to Mr. Dibdin by Mr. Sheridan, 
George Colman, Henry Harris, Thomas Harris, Mr. Whitbread, Douglas Kinnaird, Peter 
Moore, Mr. Arnold, and Mr. Elliston, now published for the first time, exhibit Secrets of 
the Green-Room, highly amusins to the public, and particularly gratifying to the lovers of 
the Drama." — Morning Chronicle. 

VAN HALEN'S NARRATIVE of his Imprison- 
ment in the Dungeons of the Inquisition, his Escape, 
his Journey to Madrid, &c. &c. 8vo. 

TALES OF A GRANDFATHER. By Walter 
Scott, Bart. First, Second, and Third Series. 

LIFE AND REMAINS OF DR. EDWARD 
DANIEL CLARKE. 8vo. 

THE CONDITION OF GREECE. By J. P. 

Miller. 12mo. With a Map. 

ELEMENTS OF SURVEYING. With Copper- 
plate Engravings. By Charles Davies, Professor 
of Mathematics, U. S. Military Academy. 8vo. 

A TABLE OF LOGARITHMS, of Logarithmic 
Sines, and a Traverse Table. 12mo. 

These Tables being stereotyped, no pains or expense have been spared to render them 
perfectly correct. 

SKETCHES of the LIVES of the SIGNERS 
of the DECLARATION of INDEPENDENCE. 
By N. Dwight. 12mo. 

THE NORTHERN TRAVELLER, combined 
with the Northern Tour. Embellished with nu- 
merous Copperplate Engravings, 18mo. 



Works Recently Published. 

DARNLEY. A Novel. By the Author of " Riche- 
lieu" In 2 vols. 12mo. 

"'Darnley' is a superior work, and will sustain the high reputation its author has 
already acquired."— New- York Mirror. 

u Its language is vigorous, its description vivid ? and its conception of character calculated 
to attract the general reader. Mr. James takes in this work a higher tone than in ' Riche- 
lieu.' "—Court Journal. 

WAVERLEY; or, 'Tis Sixty Years Since. A 
Novel. In 2 vols. 12mo. Revised, corrected, and 
enlarged, by the Author. 

*## Harper's stereotype edition of Waverley contains upwards of thirteen thouiand 
words, in alterations and additions, not in any former edition. 

BEATRICE ; a Tale founded on Facts. By Mrs. 
Hofland. In 2 vols. 12mo. 

" This is a work which may be read, with profit and pleasure, by every person, young 
or old, religious or irreligious."— Examiner. 

CONTRAST. A Novel. By Regina Maria Roche. 
author of " The t Children of the Abbey," &c. &c. 
In 2 vols. 12mo. 

" __ Who has not read the 'Children of the Abbey,' and who remembers not the 
delight it afforded in the earlier days of romance and youth ? The present volumes are 
not found to detract from the writer's well-earned reputation. The work is deeply inte- 
resting."— New-York Mirror. 

LAWRIE TODD ; or, The Settlers in the Woods. 
By John Galt, Esq., Author of "The Annals of the 
Parish," " The Ayrshire Legatees," &c. In 2 vols. 
12mo. 

" To the numerous admirers of Mr. Gait's previous works, we can confidently say ? his 
youngest child is likely to share the general fate of the youngest— that of being a favourite.* 
— Lit. Gazette. 

TRAITS OF TRAVEL. A Novel. In 2 vols. 
12mo. By the Author of "High- Ways and By- 

Ways." 

" The stories are all extremely interesting. We take great pleasure in cordially recom- 
mending these volumes to our readers." — N. Y. Mirror. 

" To the materials of the traveller, Mr. Grattan has brought the imagination of tha 
novelist. His works have a value equal to their amusement."— London Literary Gazette, 

POPULAR NOVELS.— In addition to the pre- 
ceding, J. & J. H. have now on hand an extensive 
assortment of fashionable novels, and are constantly 
publishiog new works of this class, by the best 
authors, both English and American, 



Works Recently Published. 

DOMESTIC DUTIES ; or Instructions to Mar- 
ried Ladies. By Mrs. Williap^ Parkes. In 1 vol. 
12mo. [Stereotyped.] 

"Hie volume before us is one of those practical works, •which are of real value and 
utility. It is a perfect vade rnecum for the married lady, who may resort to it on all ques- 
tions'of household economy and etiquette— There is nothing omitted with which it be- 
hooves a lady to be acquainted."— New Monthly Mag. 

THE COOK'S ORACLE, AND HOUSEKEEP- 
ER'S MANUAL. By William Kitchiner, M.D. 
Adapted to the American Public, by a Medical Gen- 
tleman. 12mo. [Stereotyped.] 

" This is a very good booh — not calculated, as many may suppose, to promote luxnr 
and excess in eatinsr, but imparting information that will enable housekeepers to dimi- 
nish their expenses, while they add to their enjoyments." — N. Y. American. 

"Dr. Kitchiners Manual, combining, as it does, for every rank of life, all that is 
useful in domestic arrangements, with much that is amusing, will, we venture to say, 
be in possession of every' one that can possibly obtain it. The poor man will soon gain 
from its maxims of frugality more than its cost, and the rich will find its price tenfold in 
the increased delicacies of his table." — N. Y. Courier and\Enquirer. 

ENGLISH SYNONYMES, with copious Illus- 
trations and Explanations, drawn from the best 
Writers. By George Crabb, M.A. A new Edition, 
enlarged. 8vo. [Stereotyped.] 

"The work is valuable to every reader; but it is precious to the student, and almost 
indispensable to the public writer"."— N. Y. Merc. Adv. 

LIFE OF LORD BYRON. By Thomas Moore, 
Esq. In 2 vols. 8vo. With a Portrait. [Stereotype.] 

" This is the best piece of biography of modern days, not excepting Southey's Life of 
Kelson, orLockhart : SBplendid biography of Burns."— Blackwood's Mag. 

THE HISTORICAL WORKS of the Rev. WIL- 
LIAM ROBERTSON, D.D. ; comprising his HIS- 
TORY of AMERICA; CHARLES V.; SCOTLAND, 
and INDIA. In 3 vols. 8vo. Embellished with 
Plates. [Stereotyped.] 

Harper's edition of these valuable standard works is far superior, in every respect, to any 
other edition ever published in this country ; and is to be preferred to Jones's University 
edition, as the type is larger, the printing aud paper are equally good, and they are sold for 
less than the casfl price of that condensed edition. Each volume is a separate history in 
itseli j and may be purchased separately, or bound uniformly with the other volumes in.sete. 

GIBBON'S HISTORY of the DECLINE and 
FALL of the ROMAN EMPIRE. In 4 vols. 8vo, 

W T ith Plates. [Stereotyped.] 

Harper's edition of Gibbon's History is stereotyped, and great care has been taken to ren- 
der it correct acd perfect. The dates" originally introduced by the author are preserved in 
the Tables of Contents prefixed to the Volumes, and also embodied in the text. Thifl will 
rend ex- thr r resent editi n decidedly preferable to the EnglisD <-diuon in four volumes, as in 
Ok Utter the dates and Tables of Contents are entirely onntteo. 






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